Was this racist?

Question

So I was attacked for being a racist because of some comments I made. Can someone please tell me if you find this racist?;

Backstory:
There are some townhouses being built up the street from me that have been causing horrible traffice jams and all kind of other crap. They've been building these things and causing problems for almost two years now. Right now they have german contracters working on them (I'm on a military base in germany)

So I said, "If they could bring in some mexicans I bet the job would be done in 6 months. They're fast and efficient workers."

So this girl jumped down my throat and said what I had said was racist and offensive, what do you think?

I don't mind being offensive towards the german contracters because they aren't efficent at all. After some people finally moved into the townhouses they had finished they had to move them out a month later because they hadn't done the plumbing right and there was water leaking everywhere.

So I'm calling someone of mexican heritage a mexican is deemed offensive? Man, I'm way behind.

Again, I have no problem saying the german contracters are lazy, because they are. You're not here, you do'nt see them drinking beer on the job, taking smoke breaks every 5 mins and parking their trucks in the middle of the road and sleeping in them when I'm trying to use that road to get to work. And if you read correctly you'd see that I was talking about the contracters not ALL germans.

Answer 1

I'm not sure its considered racist, but it is certainly a stereotyped response as it groups an entire race together in one statement. Meant as a compliment or not, generalized statements about a particular race or background are usually a bad idea in this overly sensitive day and age.

Answer 2

Not only did you insult one race,but two.You may not had thought you were making a racist statement when you said Mexicans can get the job done in 6 months but that is exactly what you did because you picked out one particular race and pinned a stereotype on them. You insulted Germans by saying they are lazy on their job, a lot of German people may take that in offense.When you make comments like that,you may not realize it but you are keeping stereotypes alive. Race does not play a factor in anyone's performance,durability or skills.

Answer 3

No, I don't think your comment was racist. But I CAN see how wome people would take it offensively - it's a touchy subject.

It's so true, though - alot of Mexicans do the jobs that we (as americans) in general don't want to do. And they're happy to do it! So more power to them. It's not racism - it's a compliment. Have you ever watched Carlos Mencia? He really goes into all of this...lol

You know, I really don't understand WHY people are so touchy about this subject. I mean, someone makes one wrong comment about another race, and all hell breaks loose. And they get so many benefits. being white is a race too? I used to get kind of jealous in school (at least 95% of my high school was Hispanic) because so many of my peers got Hispanic/Latino scholarships...but ohhh no - forget about making a scholarship for white people. That's grounds for KKK material!

psh.

Answer 4

It is a racist comment in 2 ways:

1. You are saying that German workers are inferior due to race and not ability.
2. You are stereotyping Mexicans. Even if you don't say something negative, it is still racist.

Answer 5

Absolutely. With this statement you stereotyped every Mexican as a fast and efficient worker. Although this may have only offended the lazy ones, the stereotype is not true. The statement doesn't have to be bad to be racist.

Answer 6

That's a good question. Technically it could qualify in the realm of Discrimination, in a roundabout sort of way, because you're talking about prescribing attributes to the Latino Community that are really visible in all traits.

I think she jumped down your throat because you used the word "Mexican" instead of being politically correct with the term "Latino."

For example, even if a person meant to compliment the Africans by saying they have a Diverse Culture but said, "Those 'N*ggers' have a diverse culture," you'd get in trouble.

Even though it was meant as a compliment, the choice of words would be deemed offensive.

For example, I'm Filipino. If you said to me, "You 'Flips' make some really good Lumpia," I wouldn't be bothered by it. However, some Filipinos would get ticked off even though what you said was meant as a compliment.

It would be like a guy complimenting the Intelligence of Women by saying,"You b*tches are so smart." Even though it was meant as a compliment, women would get ticked off at the way it was said.

However, this is where we come back to definitions and meanings. Before words had definitions, they didn't mean anything.

For example, before you had the KKK, the three letters KKK didn't mean anything. It was a Hateful or Racist Group that chose to take that on as their Symbol. So now KKK means something bad.

If you rolled back the clock to the 1600s and used the term KKK with African-Americans of that time period, they wouldn't have gotten offended by it because no one had defined it yet.

The name "Hitler" didn't mean anything until Adolf Hitler performed all those terrible crimes against Humanity giving that name a bad reputation.

If any parent (especially of German Descent) named their child Hitler, people would get offended.

It would be the same as a person naming their child Lucifer or Satan. People with Religious Faiths would shun that child. However, before you had Religion, the word Satan and Lucifer didn't mean anything. It wasn't until it was defined as being bad.

When American Soldiers went to Vietnam, South Vietnamese who were overjoyed by the presence of American Soldiers would be chattering Vietnamese saying, "Me ****" this and "Me ****" that.

So American Soldiers started nicknaming Vietnamese people as "Gooks." **** in Vietnames means "Country." However, the definition got relegated to something similar to that of "N*gger."

N*gger is just slang for *****, which means "Black" in Spanish. The definition stuck because hickish Americans that perverted the Spanish Language and so a negative connotation got bonded to that word.

While it's bad to call people such names, it's still good to know the origin of such terms, which a lot of people usually are unaware.

Answer 7

dont think so. mexican workers are as you said fast and efficient. they are happy not to be in mexico anymore. not racist at all, mexicans get hired alot faster because they know the value of a dollar and what it means to put in a days work without bitching about the benefits. good call all togehter.

Answer 8

I'd say it is offensive because you're making out that the German workers are slow and unable to work efficiently but i wouldn't call it Racist. Racism is a form of discrimination against a person because of their faith, colour, belief, origin etc.
So i won't call you racist.

Answer 9

To me it sounds like you were complementing the Mexican people for being better workers than the German workers

Answer 10

Youre right we are fast and efficient and most of us would take that as a compliment but yeah to someone else that might sound racist.