I don't like Arabs. Am I racist?

Question

My neighbour is an Arab and he's really rude and unsociable and he has so many kids, screaming and fighting all day long. His house looks so dirty and messy on the outside next to mine I feel embarrassed to live next door and I think he drags down the good reputation of my street.
He's given me a bad feeling towards Arabs because of how he behaves. I've never personally known an Arab before him so now I think that maybe I am biased towards all Arabs.

Answer 1

I don't think disliking your neighbor makes you racist---he sounds thoroughly disagreeable.
If you're really trying to figure out if you're being racist, try to consider whether it would bother you to the same extent if it were an all-American family living right next door with the same dirty messy house and screaming fighting kids.

Answer 2

Please don'e be biased against all Arabs. It is easy to generalize from a small sample, but also usually incorrect to do so.

We know a number of wonderful Arabian families and individuals -- who are gentle, caring, clean, kind, and far, far from extreme. I would not trade the world for two families I can think of that are Arab-Americans and one boy, now at University here in the US whom we love like a son.

The neighbor may be dirty and rude to you -- but the answer may be that if he is drawing a circle to keep you out, draw a bigger one to take him in.

Of course the other possibility is that he is religiously extreme -- and fundamentalist Islam is even worse than fundamentalist Christianity as far as I can tell (and I have that from the mouths of all of our Arabian friends, most of whom are very liberal Muslims, although the boy -- who will never return to his homeland, has completely left his historic wisdom tradition/faith -- and is happy to have done so.). If your neighbor is religiously extreme -- it is much harder to include him -- I admit, at that point I would not try -- but I'm under a different set of strictures in a sense, as we are a gay couple, and fundamentalist Islam particularly hates gays -- so I would feel constrained to not bother him any more than I had to.

So, just as you would if he were of any other race -- please, disparage or dislike him if you must - due to what he makes you feel and how he treats the neighborhood -- but do not disparage or dislike all Arabs, that is just racism.

Kindest thoughts,

Reynolds Jones
[e-mail]

Answer 3

yes and no
yes because u dont like someone because of their race and the things they do
no because u have a right to an opinion, and u have to have some hard feelings because of all the things u have heard on tv about arabs and what bad things they do and how ur neighbor acts toward u kind of says that some of the things on tv might be true

Answer 4

Well, you know that all Arabs aren't like him, so I don't see why you would think you're racist. If he were bald, would you be prejudice against bald people?
It is interesting, i am white and I've found myself in similiar situations before and wondered about that, but then I think of all the white people i hate, and i realize that race has very little to do with it.

Answer 5

I hate most of the Muslim Arabs but not the Christian ones. I do have some Muslim Arabs friends, but most of the Muslim Arabs are very rude like you said, I get bullied and teased by them.

Answer 6

No, you are not a racist. Arabs are in fact very dirty people. They are very sneaky and they think that they are better than non arabs and non muslims. All arabs should be killed because that is what they wish for you.

Answer 7

Its not racist!

You just dont like the way they are living their life! Not all arabs like that since uve never personally known Arab before!

Dont be racist...its not a good thing tho~

::One swallow does not make a summer::


Cheers~

Answer 8

You are just influenced by your neighbor into thinking that arabs are the same as him. You are just a victim. Try to research on the good things arabs do.

Answer 9

you can not possibly be a racist , because I guarantee you that if you meet a nice Arab, your view point will change. check out trailer trash . It doesn't get any worse then that but yet there are nice folk es there too.

my suggestion find a nice Arab ,have him explain to your neighbor to clean up and become friends!

good luck

Answer 10

So you're basing your judgement of an entire group of people on the behavior of one person. That's really not fair and seems narrow minded to me. I'm sure you've met white people who were jerks before, but do you hate white people? My view is some people are jerks some aren't. Their race has nothing to do with it.