If you make an observation, it’s racist/ignorant?

Question

If you say: Black people tend to have attitudes, or Asians tend to be strict, is that ignorant or racist? (mind you these are jsut examples of what I hear).

It may be a bit ignorant, but racist-I don’t know. Isn’t it just an observation?

Well put, Derek

(sighs*) These aren't my 'observation.' It's jsut stuff I've heard before.

Blazin you need to calm down.

Answer 1

Let me tell you something....

You are probably right in your generalization... but this is what I and other customer service phone reps have noticed...

EVERY RUDE, IRATE and IRRITATING WHINING customer "OVER THE PHONE"........ are ALL white!

That's right! white ppl are polite when they are talking to people face to face (in the real world). But on the phone, they are ALL VERY RUDE and CRUDE!
They also are the once that are the first to say "I was talking to this Chinese guy that I did not understand"... or "this woman with a horrible accent".....

So.... (in your words) To "Make an observation": white people have the worst attitude and arrogance over the phone! :)

Answer 2

If you observe about ten black people with attitude in your entire life then tell me "Well black people have attitudes" yeah that is both ignorant and racist. Ignorant because you only observed a few people and racist because you threw it over the entire race. If you actually hang around black people all the time and observe anything, maybe it won't be racist, but you can't talk about a race based on only a few examples.

Answer 3

it's racist because you are categorizing an ethnic race. if you say, SOME black people have atitudes then that is an opinion. ignorance is people who just don't know any better.. I am asian-american and people ask me all the time how to make fried rice or egg rolls and I take that as ignorance because they assume that I would know but if someone said asian people are stupid, then I would take that as racist because they are talking about ALL asians. there's a fine line and when it comes down to it, being an opinion or racism depends on the individual you are talking to and how they perceive it.

Answer 4

When you make a blanket statement like that, you're making an all-inclusive assertion. If, for instance, you say that lawyers are crooks, you're implying that ALL lawyers are crooks, which can't possibly be true unless you've met every single lawyer on the planet AND every single one of them is a crook.

If you say, "All the lawyers I'VE MET are crooks," no one can dispute that because that has been your experience, and no one knows your experience better than you. They can however dispute what defines a crook.

There are poor representatives in ANY people group you can name.

Answer 5

The way you worded it is not necessarily racist, but most ppl don't say things as carefully thought out as you did. Most ppl say "All black ppl have attitudes", "those Asians are too strict".

Now those would be racist.

Answer 6

You are a racist,you are makin assumptions based on a people ethn make up

Answer 7

well prejudice and ignorant, not necessarily racist though, but if you can judge a whole culture of people when you most likely don't even know 2% you are an uneducated prick...

Answer 8

I think it's ignorant and sort of rascist, actually, because Americans and some white people have bigger attitudes than black people do. It's everyone.

Answer 9

it could be that u were just in a bad situation which led u to believe that. if u knew everyone then i guess it would be okay

Answer 10

Its only an observation when it comes to caucasians, the rest is racism.