Am I racist

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So today I was in the bus coming home and on the two seats in front of me sat and Asian couple (male and female) I'm thinking they were Indian. Anyway the woman was drinking a tin of JD and Coke

I thought to myself that this is highly unusual for me to see this happening...I've seriously never seen an Asian person drinking alcohol on public transport before

I do often travel through multicultural areas and have lived in areas highly populated with Asian people

I'm not saying what she was doing was wrong or anything like that. If anything I felt like I was the bad one for thinking it was unusual

Was this racial stereotyping on my behalf

Am I a racist

It is racial stereotyping. It's also pretty mild.

Even if you want to make the case that it could be seen as racist, it's also pretty harmless. It doesn't sound hateful. It doesn't make you "a racist" in the way that term is usually used.

Yeah that's what I thought

I've just never seen that before. In contrast to that there was a big fat white guy drinking a bottle of bear two seats behind me and I wasn't at all surprised... I think that might be even worse

I think you are over thinking this. To notice a pattern and draw conclusions from that is a sign of intelligence.

To notice things is not racism at all! Why should it be? You are funny Babybird!

I know I'm funny but it was a legit concern

Yeah it's stereotyping, but it's kinda how our minds work, wanting to compartmentalize things. Being aware of it and that it's a bias is important, imo.

I wouldn't sweat it too much.

One of the advantages in knowing more about yourself is that you also learn more about human nature in other people. If I understand that I am capable of seeing myself as an individual who has many unique attributes and personal idiosyncrasies then its not really a quantum leap that other people are not capable of being individuals too.

On the flipside it's easy to stereotype and we do it to make snap decisions about how we interact with people we come across in public. Sometimes these are conditioned from childhood and are subconscious so we don't think twice when drawing on our notions of (insert group).

So recognising you did stereotype this Asian couple means it created a conflict in your thoughts. It's a good first step in future to not approach people like an AI robot sorting through data. People have emotions and feelings. they want live their own lives. While I'm not a fan of public intoxication I think this couple are cool, enjoying a JD on the bus kicking back and enjoying life.

Yeah it was cool and they were having a really nice time together

You're right about the conflict in my brain because I wouldn't usually care if people are drinking, smoking or whathaveyou on the bus but I've just never encountered it with Asian people before

You didn't say how old they were? but in my experience here in Australia is younger Asian people are fairly culturally assimilated and prone to the same types of public behaviour as everyone else

Yeah they were probably early to mid 20s

I need to be kinder towards myself because I'm starting to get out more after many years of more or less isolating myself away so I'm bound to encounter things that are unusual compared to how it was almost 20 years ago

I only just started using public transport again a few months ago

Racist? Nah.

Do not think it has much to do with bias or prejudice...but auto matic brain pattern noting. In some places peeps whom are willing imbibe in public on a public transports causes one to almost what other potential vices do they have, if they do not care if they are seen drinking on a public transport witn many unknown people . And how far might they go to claim lack of irresponsibility for their actions, blaming the alchohol?....possible advanced survival mechanism ?

Yeah agree with the general consensus.
Basically while racists rely on stereotypes, most people who stereotype do not know they do it so can't really be racist. I think to be racist you need some level frontal lobe decision making before going through with a racist thought.

Thank you guys so much

I'm still learning