Is it racist to hate racists?

[LizaMarie]

When I worked at a Cumberland Farms back in my high school days we had this regular we all really liked. He was your typical New England Swamp Yankee stock, very frank and friendly. He came in the day after the fourth of july and looked at a newspaper that had a picture of an older Muslim woman waving an American flag and looking very emotional/patriotic. I thought it was really nice, that it expressed solidarity and demonstrated that immigrants came to this country for a reason, and take pride in it. He took one look at it and said word for word, "Ya see this? People who look like this are blowing people up all the time, and we still let em into this country."

I was devastated, I didn't even know how to respond. I had really liked this guy, and here he was spouting xenophobic crap. I think I didn't say anything, just finished his order and nearly cried. In retrospect, I wish I had been able to stand up to him.

[Seshat]

I was devastated, I didn't even know how to respond. I had really liked this guy, and here he was spouting xenophobic crap. I think I didn't say anything, just finished his order and nearly cried. In retrospect, I wish I had been able to stand up to him.

I've had that sort of thing happen to me. It breaks my heart sometimes, to find that people who are otherwise nice, normal, decent people can believe such crap.

As for it being racist (shall we say 'bigoted'?) to hate racists: Tom Lehrer had a quote which I believe wins the prize. "There are people in this world who hate other people, and I HATE people like that!"

Personally, I try not to hate bigots just for bigotted or ignorant opinions. Pity them, yes. Am careful about how much I trust them, absolutely. Try to teach them, if I can. But not hate them. I don't think hate is good for my mental health: even if they don't deserve better, I do. (It can be hard not to, though.)

[MinimaMagistra]

I never know how to respond to anything regarding race. Even if I'm not sure if it's racism or not. We're hiring housekeeping, and my boss wants me to try for mexicans, when I take applications, because "they work harder". I can't tell if that's racial profiling for good or ill. Gets them a job, good all around, but seems to be awefully stereotyping, which is never cool.

On the other hand, it's just annoying as hell when folks see the plaques that have the (obviously indian) name of our hotel's owner. The owner's father, actually, but still an indian name. I've had people comment about how "those folk" are really running a lot of buisnesses over here. It bugs me, and then they just look at me like they're waiting for me to gossip with them. I can't tell if they're looking for confirmation that "yeah, and it's a damn good thing" or "yeah, can't get away from the bastards" or WHAT. How to I professionally get across that I don't really care?

The only encounter that left me not feeling perturbed was when a girl asking after an application asked if "those forigners" still ran the place. I blinked for a second, trying to figure out if this was a deal-breaker for her working there or just tactless small talk. The owners, again, have indian blood, but as I told her after a pause: "They're Canadian...?"

A fact which I learned when said boss was relating his response to an irate woman who scolded him with "Oh go back to your country!"