Does this mean I'm racist?

[Ziggy]

In my job I spend a lot of time on the phone talking to people (Daft thing to say because what else do you do on the phone). Some of these people I chat to on a regular basis, and over time, I have built a good rapport and friendship with them. As with most forms of non visual communication you start to build a mental picture of the person you are talking to. (Tall, sporty, confident, well dressed etc...).

One of these regular contacts offered to come to my place of work for a face to face meeting, and to take me out to lunch. When I met him I was surprised to see that he was black. My mental image was of a tall, sporty, confident, well dressed, Caucasian guy. Does that make me a racist?

My assumption was based on his voice, accent, etc....... I strongly want to iterate here that I had no issues or problems with the fact that he wasn't white. I couldn't give a hoot what colour he was, or, how he dressed (as long as he was suitably attired). I think I came to that mental image because that is what I expected to see, because that is what I normally see.

Does my presumption mean that technically I am a racist?

I don't think that I am, I'd be horrified if somebody thought that I was truly am racist

Oh, and by the way, we did go for lunch, we each had a big steak, a few beers, and a good chat about work and non work stuff



Ziggy

[Nutty_ZA]

I don't think that makes you a racist!!!
You (and everyone else) just has preconceived perceptions of what people look like... we do it when we read a book (i.e. visualise the character we are reading about) and we do it when we talk to people over the phone... because you are obviously a white person, you automatically visualise ppl as white unless you have other cue's (eg. accent) which would suggest other ethnicities...

[Ziggy]

Phew

I suppose I must just be narrow minded

Ziggy

[InLove]

No way you're not racist!!

I know how you feel though, I work in a call centre and so never meet any of the people I talk to. You do get a mental picture of someone. I've been working there for so long that these preconceptions have now evaporated and most of the time I don't bother to create a mental image anymore. Then again I only talk to these people for a few minutes.

I remember when I started that I used to make assumptions on people's names. For example if the person had a very foregin name I would expect them to have issues with english (which happens a lot). I found out quickly that I was often wrong.

No you're not racist

[TheGuru]

At school we had a french teacher of Oriental origin who had a thick Scottish accent. It was a bit much for my brain at first.

He was a great guy

[Waldo]

Many years ago I had a lot of contact with a chap with the ultimate in "dark brown voice" sounds - I eventually met him and he was the campest guy I'd ever met! But he was a lovely chap and we stayed friends because I'm not a homophobe! He, on the other hand, was expecting a petite blonde with a curly perm (all the fashion then) and he got a shock too! It's hard not to try to put a face to a voice, and equally hard to get it right, so NO, not a racist, just human!

[Mike]

On the subject of voices, does anybody remember the

Cadburys Caramel advert

from the 80's?

The voice of the sexy sounding rabbit was done by Miriam Margolyes

I was surprised when I found out, as I had pictured the voice to belong to...... Well lets just say I hadnt imagined it was Miriam

She is a great actress though. She was very funny in Black Adder



So Im also guilty of building daft assumptions

[billie114]

Racist definitely not...imagination, yes.

I think we are all guilty of imagination in some form. I read alot and I have my mental images of the characters so it comes as quite a shock when the movie comes out based on the book and the characters are all wrong. Haven't you heard most people say the movie wasn't as good as the book. Well that's why. The movie doesn't live up to our mental expectations of what the characters should look like.

So don't feel guilty for using your imagination.

[Mike]

Well put