Search Results: being a good friend friendship

Sorry in advance if this question is long but I wanted to be as detailed as possible to give an idea of my situation.

I have a friend that at one point we both admitted to having feelings for each other. But I asked him to slow down and let us get to know each other first and see where it leads. He agreed.

But as I got to know him more, I asked could we try going out; I felt we were ready. He said he did not want to risk messing up our the friendship if we dated and things did not work out, but he would "think about it." Okay fine.

But now he is confusing me.

He calls me every day when he wakes up, if he's bored at work, or just because. I rarely initiate any phone calls or texts to him so I thought that was a good sign he was into me or trying to get to know me better.

Yet he never wants to hang out with me or go out, even as friends! Earlier, he told me he was going to the movies tonight and made sure to emphasize he was going alone. He even asked me did I think it was that weird that he liked going alone. Whereas I was trying to go with him to the movies! Hint was ignored :(
Even friends spend time together, or so I thought.

The only time we get together involves doing work. I try to do nice stuff for him to show him I care, yet he does not catch the hint or shrugs it off. But he teases me over things you wouldn't discuss with a friend, like sex. I am noticing the more we talk, the less sex or flirty jokes he makes. Does that mean he is no longer attracted to me?

So what does he want? I am really confused over here. I tried asking him but he never gives me a straight answer!
I am okay with being friends, though I would like more. I want know what his deal is. Any help would be appreciated!

To sum it up, I told my friend I liked him on the train. He simply said "okay". That crushed me and I cried that night. For the next two weeks, we went along as if nothing happened - until one day on the train, he casually mentioned that I told him I liked him. I thought he was going to go somewhere with that, but he just went on to talking about something else. I was so confused so later that night, I told him to give me a straightforward answer. Apparently, he wanted to just be friends and didn't think he reacted negatively. I'm not going to lie, I cried again. Anyways, because I was being emotional, I asked him why. It took him two days to drop me a message telling me it was because he had a preference for lighter skinned girls. I was genuinely shocked at his message (mainly because I didn't think me being black would be a problem for him since he and his parents both grew up in the most diverse neighborhood in town), so I waited a day to reply back. I told him that I found it disappointing that race was such a significant factor for him and that it's okay for him to have a preference, but it is and will always be a dick move to tell someone that their skin colour is the problem. I pretty much ended our friendship there. Earlier in the week, he's been giving me sad glances and I'm guessing he's been trying to find the opportunity to talk to me, but I honestly didn't want anything to do with him. I've caught him staring at me on occasions, but after a while, if I was anywhere near him, he refused to look up at me. One of my closest guy friend has been telling me to talk to him, because he thinks maybe his religion (Mormon) is the reason he rejected me, but I can't see anything positive coming out of it. I feel like there's a 98% chance he's going to try to explain why I wasn't good enough for him and then end up hurting me again. Should I take the risk and message him or just continue ignoring him?