Am I racist?

Question

I get really upset when I see certain "groups" of people standing on the street waiting for work. The reason I get upset is because I never see border patrol, homeland security or law enforcement officials cracking down on these "groups" of people standing around looking for work.

During a recent conversation with a friend he said I was racist.

Am I ?

Answer 1

What you're asking certainly has brought on a lot of different answers from people.

What do you mean by certain groups?

Are you talking about a particular "race" of people standing around?

What about a religious group??

Is it a certain class of people?? for ex: white collar, blue collar, middle - high class or low class.

However it sounds like you're talking about one group in particular, and that is undocumented immigrants AKA illegal aliens.

I wouldn't define what you're asking as "racist" but it could be something in particular about the group that bothers you.

On the other hand, you really don't know what kind of position this "group" of people may be in so you may want to put  the judgements aside. I'm just saying.

Having tunnel vision is never a good thing. Put their shoes on your feet and think for a minute "What if that had been you".

Edit: To "oside_07..." Why did you specifically call out Haitians and Jamaicans?

Now if you ask me, what you just stated there was not only unintelligent, but prejudice primarily to both cultures in particular. Don't you think???     *sigh* I really don't know about some people. They always have me constantly scratching my head.

Double Edit: LMAO x10..... to the intelligent individual who said "You can't be racist if you're black"........Yeah OK!!

Answer 2

Yes. Just because these "groups" of people are HISPANIC does not mean they are illegal.

Answer 3

Of course not...provided you would be equally upset if the groups were of any other race

Answer 4

No,you are just pissed because they are here illegally and there is nothing wrong with that.They all just happen to be mexican.I think your friend uses that term a little too loosely,would he call you a racist if an eskimo cut you off in traffic and you cussed the guy out?probably.I was called a racist on Answers England several times because I asked wether or not England was being taken over by muslim extremists.Go figure.

Answer 5

Ask yourself this…

Would you be upset if you would see hookers standing on the street (in a place where prostitution is illegal), waiting for work and you would not see the vice squad cracking down on these “groups” of people standing around looking for a John?

Would you be upset if you would see drug dealers standing on the street, waiting for a buyer and you would not see the DEA cracking down on these “groups” of people standing around looking for a junky?

If my two examples would not upset you, then yes, you’re a racist, otherwise…no, you’re not.

If I had to choose between hookers, drug dealers or hard working for low pay illegal immigrants, just trying to feed their families…I know which one I would want.

Answer 6

That sounds a little racist. How do you know they are not U.S. citizens? That's the same as saying the Troops in Iraq cannot shoot at a terrorist how do they know.Why does it all come down to how do you know, well lets ask for some ID then we shall know. Racism is rose colored glasses.The illegal in SF triple murder, another in NJ tripe murder and they ask how did the police know they were actually involved

Answer 7

let me see how should i put this if we hire more migrant workers then we get to eat tasty salad and we purchase fruit and veggies from the local growers. in boynton beach where i come from i always go to publix to buy food like lettace, green onions, garlic, tomatoes, avacodoes. tasty huh?

all picked by migrants so the point i,m makeing is buy food from the immigrants please.

Answer 8

No. Illegal immigrants don't belong in America and they are taking jobs away from Americans (including government jobs).

1) "Illegal Immigrants Take Jobs from African-Americans"

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca5...

"Mass Immigration vs. Black America

Statement of T. Willard Fair " http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/Fa...

In 2007 "Democrat politicians refused to allow an African American man to testify as an expert witness in front of the Democrat controlled immigration committee....Republicans then setup a special committee so the concerns of the man could be addressed"

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

2) by: www_minutemanproject_com

"Latinos entering the country between 2000 and 2004 were hired to fill more than one-third of all new jobs in the United States last year according to the Pew Hispanic Center."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryne...

3) 97% of illegal immigrants taking jobs away from Americans (only 3% work in farming)

"While 3 percent of unauthorized workers are employed in agriculture, 33 percent have jobs in service industries and substantial shares can be found in construction and extractive occupations (16%) and in production, installation and repair (17%)."Pew Hispanic Center Offers Fuller Portrait of Unauthorized Migrants "

pewhispanic.org

4) The price of lettuce will stay the near the same after illegal immigrants are deported. Even if we pay farm workers $21 an hour it would only increase the cost of lettuce by 14 cents.

"The average "consumer unit" in the U.S. spends $7 a week on fresh fruit and vegetables, less than is spent on alcohol, according to Martin. On a $1 head of lettuce, the farm worker gets about 6 or 7 cents, roughly 1/15th of the retail price. Even a big run-up in the cost of labor can't hit the consumer very hard. http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowr...

5) Illegal immigrants are not needed to pick vegetables.  Growers hire illegal aliens to maximize profits. It is much cheaper to hire illegal aliens than to buy one tomato harvester that can harvest 40 tons of tomatoes an hour.

Farmers found out it is less expensive to hire foreigners and then have taxpayers pay for foreigners costs to local governments. That dramatically increases profits for farmers.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

6) California spends over $10 billion a year extra because of illegal immigrants. This year, California is facing a budget deficit of $15 billion. ( In the past California has borrowed money to cover the deficit.)  California spends over $700 million yearly on criminal illegal immigrants (The state, county, judicial, and law enforcement costs total over $1 billion) and around 50% of California prisoners are illegal immigrants. )

There is really only one group that is keeping California's economy alive. That is the conservative workers  of the San Francisco bay area, known as Silicon Valley. (Apple, H.P., Google, Yahoo, Intel, AMD, Ebay, Applied Materials, Cisco, Agilent, Sun, Oracle, Lochheed satellites, etc). Corporate Silicon Valley workers are mostly conservatives and don't like to see social decay.

If Silicon Valley were to leave California then California would become like a third world country with no tax revenue to support schools, social programs, etc..

7)California is laying off teachers because of illegal immigrants.

http://blog.heritage.org/2008/03/27/poli...

8) Illegal immigrants have been increasing healthcare costs for everyone. Governor Schwarzenegger said " Over the past decade, more than 60 hospitals in California have closed their emergency rooms because so many people have got them stuck with unpaid bills. So what they do is, they close those emergency rooms because they’d rather just close them than treating people that are not paying their bills. Right here in San Diego County seven emergency rooms have closed in the past few years, according to Dr. James Dunford, the city’s Medical Director. " http://gov.ca.gov/speech/5931/ Also, their negative effect on healthcare costs is spreading across America. Even a hospital on the East Coast of the U.S. is closing because of illegal immigration.  "Muhlenberg has also been treating a growing number of uninsured patients as well as undocumented patients, most of whom are not insured and do not qualify for charity care, he said. "

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02...  (New Jersey's The Star-Ledger )

"National Highway Traffic Safety study that says 4559 people were killed in 2005 by [DUI] illegal immigrants" (drunk driving illegal immigrants.) http://origin.mercurynews.com/valley/ci_...

Over 25% of all federal prisoners are foreigners even though they are just a small percentage of the U.S. population.(Most are from Mexico said a government report )

U.S. government website:

http://www.gao.gov/htext/d05337r.html

California alone spends over $700 million a year on criminal illegal alien prisoners. The amount jumps to over $1 billion a year when you include local jails, police costs, and court costs.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=...

240,000 Foreign s*x offendersin the U.S. and 100 new ones cross the border daily. "Based on a one-year in-depth study, a researcher estimates there are about 240,000 illegal immigrant s*x offenders in the United States who have had an average of four victims each. "

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.as...

Answer 9

I think you just need to look at it in a different way, what if it was you, how would you feel if you were in there shoes?

Answer 10

He's not really your friend if he thinks you're racist.

BTW, I've grown a tougher skin since I joined an anti-illegal immigration group. People can call me a racist all day long, and I just smile, and say "and??"

Answer 11

Yes, there is a very good chance that you are racist.  If you are automatically jumping to conclusions and forming immediate generalized opinions about certain groups of people, that is a way of showing some time of racism.  Obviously you are talking about Hispanics and if you think badly of most all hispanics and automatically assume they're illegal simply because they're hispanic, that is racism.

Answer 12

I don't think so, it was just an observation but because it was of only one race it could be percieved as racist. Maybe you should avoid that because some people don't really know what racism is. :)

Answer 13

If you have ever disagreed with anything Al Sharpton ever said in any way, shape or form, then yes, you are racist.  For wondering about illegal immigrants, no you are not racist.

Answer 14

No where in what you wrote here can lead anyone to think that you believe one race is genetically superior to another race. If you did then that would be a racist statement. The "R" word gets thrown around so much it's real meaning is diluted to the point that when you criticize anyone ethnically different you are labeled a racist.

You take any street corner in this country and stick a group of people of there day after day looking for work and people will think the same as you no matter what races are used.

Answer 15

nope,your not! to me it sounds like you want the cops and the government to protect and serve.after all,isn't that their motto? i to would like to see people arrested for breaking our laws!

Answer 16

You are if only one kind of ppl standing around gets you upset. I got a friend who's racist and thinks when she sees black ppl standing around that their planning to sell drugs. That's not true and it makes her a racist coz groups of other ppl don't make her say that.

Answer 17

the short answer is No, but it all depends on how broad the definition of racist is...  

one thing is certain it is prejudiced you are assuming this group has an issue with the federal government, similar to me assuming that a bunch of African American kids that wear 'loose"clothing is out for trouble..

Most people would define that as racist, I tend not to because the group you refereed to can not be finger pointed to an specific race, thus is not racist but it is prejudiced.

makes sense?

Answer 18

you can't be racist if you're black!

Answer 19

That sounds a little racist. How do you know they are not U.S. citizens? where do you live. There are those "groups" of people where I live. I live 1 hour east of SF. and I do not care. They are people looking for work.  I am pretty sure they are U.S. citizens, I am not gonna go up and ask because its none of my business. They want labor jobs and they wait and see if people need them. I do not see the problem in it...

Answer 20

No, sounds like you are an angry person though.Anger has a place but I think in the example you gave you are just letting yourself get too worked up about something you have little power over.

Answer 21

No you are not.

it's not racist to say you don’t want rampant illegal immigration. It’s not racist to say that you’re uncomfortable surrounded by people who don’t speak English. It’s not racist to fear your job being taken by somebody else who will work for less. It's not racist to be anti criminal.

Despite the claims by the pros on this website, I am not racist.   And neither are you.

Answer 22

Well, I don't think you are racist, but please remember that just because these groups are a certain race it does NOT always mean that they are immigrants. If you were to treat certain races differently simply because they are the race God made them, then yes, that is obviously racist. You are wanting to protect your country from being ripped off by illegal aliens, and that is good. Try not to let it bother you. I know that's easier said than done but just go about your business knowing you are doing what's right for you and not concern yourself with something you can't change.

Answer 23

racism  

  

Main Entry: rac·ism  

Pronunciation: \ˈrā-ˌsi-zəm also -ˌshi-\

Function: noun

Date: 1933

1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race

2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

— rac·ist  \-sist also -shist\ noun or adjective  

decide for yourself

Answer 24

If racist means desiring laws to be upheld then yes.

Answer 25

I don't think we have enough information to determine if you're a racist or not.  I will assume you are referring to hispanics or mexicans.  That assumtion should give you insight to my own admitted stereotypes.

You may be getting upset because you dislike hispanics, and that would make you a racist.  The second possability is that illegal activity angers you, and your stereotypes are causing you to belive that these hispanics are illegal aliens seeking work in America.

In any case, the way the question is worded I am doubting you are a real person, and instead - this question is someone's social experiment to see if we would assume the "groups" are hispanics or Mexicans.  As expected, I think we all did.  (Of course, my assumption that you are not real is merely another stereotype formed from years of online experience.)

Stereotyping is somewhat unavoidable.  So, an individual should make a point of carefully considering their stereotypes and see people as individuals.

Answer 26

No you certainly are not. I am British, and married to an Indian man. And both of us agree that this type of thing is just totally ignored by the authorities!!! probably as they dont want to be called racist!!!

Answer 27

Standing around waiting for work is far better than stealing, dealing drugs, hastling people, etc.

Answer 28

well ur not . but if that group didnt work 4 those certain jobs then who would be cleaning ur home or doing ur yard most people that come from that group may not be educated and thats the only jobs there qualified 4. ya dig?

Answer 29

OMG i have the same thing!!

I mean I see a bunch of "people" in the back of my housewith their pants low wearing doorags and they are always holding a paper bag...I mean Cmon where is the police, I mean what about the border patrol, I mean I bet some of these people are haitians or from jamaica....and pretty much everyone from there is in the US illegaly...so AM i a racist???....ahahahhahahaha...OMG why do u care wheter they are there waiting for a job, ...u know its a d**n job....they are not doing anything wrong..the goverment knows it and the white contractor knows it...and pretty much the people that you see waiting in the corners of the building are here legally, beleive me UR NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT HAS NOTICED THAT....so just because they are hispanics , waiting for a job..doesnt mean that they are here illegally....the Border patrol are not that STUPID., of course they have done something about it.....it sucks when you dont have nothing to do but to critize people ......so if pretty much every single person in yahoo tells you that you are not racist ....are you actually going to beleive them???....lol

Answer 30

well..

are you mad because the law is not being upheld..or are you angry because they are a different skin color that is not worthy to be in your eye site?

if its the second then your a racist prick...which i dont believe you are! :)

Answer 31

no, i dont like that either, kinda makes me want to be in law enforcement i would know where to find these ppl,  just dont tell ppl they might take it the wrong way