Am I a racist?

Question

I've always considered myself a person who takes everybody on face value and doesn't discriminate.
However , recently I've moved to "middle England" and to be honest a predominantly white neighbourhood. The other day I saw an Asian guy near our street, instead of treating him like they normally do in the south (ie ignore them, (not what I am used to in the North!!)), I went out of my way to say hello as I wanted him to feel welcome, ie treating him differently because he was Asian, does that make me a racist? If I wasn't racist surely I would have treated him like any other neighbour and ignored him.
This is a genuine question , if we lived in a non-racist society surely we would have to be completely colour blind, wrt positive and negative aspects.

Answer 1

NOT at all, I think saying hello to the man will not go a in vain. keep up your human attitude towards your fellow human beings.

Answer 2

Yes you are, but don't worry. At least you are the good kind. As long as you don't start treating him better than everyone else. Also, you might not normally be, it could have been the fact that you did not see an asian there ever and felt that he may have needed some welcoming since he probably was new and not used to all of the white people. If anything, you did something very smart

Answer 3

No your not racist , just a touch intimidated, what with moving to a new area and having to adjust into a new home. You say you usually ignore your neighbours!

I find that rather sad, and mostly that is the problem in today's society, people are too busy to care about their communities they live in or just don't want to make the effort to get to know the people around them.
I understand that in today's modern society we always tend to be cautious which is natural what with all the weirdos out their!

But maybe if you throw a House warming and invite not just your regular friends but the neighbours as well you may be surprised, try to be more friendly and sociable, after all it never hurts to be nice...baby steps as they say!

Answer 4

Racist believe that their race is superior to all others. Walking over and welcoming the Asian man to your community is hardly the same thing. Perhaps the fact that he was Asian made it more obvious to you that that he was new.
If you were racist I don't think you would have bothered to ask this question. We will never be completely color blind. Ignoring someone race is like ignoring their height or their weight or there gender. What matters is how much importance you attach to each of those traits.

Answer 5

English eh! Such a ploy for sympathy from these folks.
To date and for over 800 years your country has occupied a neighbor, committed ritualistic strangulation hangings of women and children for the smallest show of nationalism, the wearin of the green. Attempted to kill their language culture and customs. Took advantage of a tragedy and tried to starve them to death, resulting in the murder or exile of over 600 thousand. The first stage of the nearly ten year "peace" accord was to remove English battlements which stand today, the last vestige's of an attempt at world colonization, now all but rebuffed.
If you really wanted to show these people what a sterling human being you are...

Answer 6

No. These days people are automatically assumed to be racist, especially white people. It is normal to notice when someone is a different race. If you were racist then you would be thinking something like 'oh great, what is he doing here? Im so much better...' You only said hello. You were prob. subconsciously worried that he noticed it was prodominantly white and you wanted him to feel welcome. Everyone is so worried about being 'politically correct' these days that we cant relax or be ourselves. Then when we see ourselves acting a little differently we think we are racist. Just relax. You know everyone is equal so be happy with the fact that your a good person.

Answer 7

Contrary to some answers the fact that you are asking the question demonstrates that you are not. You are obviously thinking and trying to do the right thing and treat people with respect.


Being non-racist starts with treating everyone with respect not being blind to differences.

Answer 8

If you hold open the door for a disable person when you usually would not bother if you do does this make you anti disabled or does this mean you are eager to put write the injustices and show you are not small minded. In asda it was busy but there was an African girl on a checkout I went to her cause she was free and let the small minded ones wait in long ques

Answer 9

I understand your difficulty, but think it leaves you without any reason to feel guilty. You are merely someone who, being aware of the issue, decided to use you intelligence to challenge the situation as you saw it. You were rather like the good host who realises that one guest knows nobody and the proceeds to address the problem.

Answer 10

Richard, You say Asian? as in, a national or a foreigner? Be more specific mate, your question sounds pretty pointless if you ask me. Just because this geeza happened to live or come into your neighborhood, doesn't necessarily mean you have to make him feel welcome and feel the urge to etc.