A couple months ago I was in the airport in London where I had to change planes to come to NYC. We got off our plane from Bcn and had to go through metal detectors etc. to go board the other plane. Thing is, after going through the metal detectors we had to take a bus and walk for like 10 minutes 'til we got to our boarding area or whatever it's called. The whole deal freaked me out because I thought ok so we went through security and all but between then and now someone could slip in. Let me just note that this was about the time when the whole extreme security (no liquids no nothing) was going on, especially in London, so that was making me even more paranoid. Anyway so that's when I saw this guy sitting across the aisle(sp?) from me. He was pretty young, maybe in his late 20s or early 30s, and was sitting there alone. What kind of struck me as strange was that he wasn't carrying anything(kind of logical if you think about the whole security deal, but I didn't think about that then because I was too distracted by something else, and obviously I wasn't being very logical or rational). Anyway what I was more focused on was where the guy looked like he was from, he fit a certain profile. And basically that's when my whole prejudice/fear/racism started kicking in.(and what this whole post is supposed to be about). I started getting scared, literally, and extremely paranoid about this guy being a terrorist and blowing up the plane and a bunch of stupid things like this that I'm extremely ashamed of. I even got to the point to telling my mom that we shouldn't get on the plane, just so you see how ridiculous and irrational I was being. She obviously told me to fuck off, and she said something like "Imagine how HE must be feeling, simply because he looks a certain way people judge him, based on nothing", she was completely right obviously, I had no reason to suspect him at all but I was judging him and basically being racist prejudiced and completely irrational. So that's what I wanted to ask you guys, have you ever done this? What is the basis for it? I constantly lecture people about not being racist and here I found myself being the biggest hypocrite. I don't know yeah just talk about anything you want or bring up more questions that come to mind related to this topic!

I think everyone does something like at some point, no matter how tolerant we claim to be. It's just human nature, and it definitely doesn't help that stereotypes like that are pounded into us all the time (such as the anti-Arab sentiment as a result of so much Islamic fundamentalist terrorism). I'm ashamed to say it, but every time I walk by a group of Hispanics looking suspicious, I make sure I know where my wallet is. For all I know, they could be the nicest people. And I know for a fact that's how they normally act; it's their culture. Who am I to think they're going to mug me just because they're Mexican?

People are naturally afraid of thing that are different. You just have to make a conscious effort to push those fears and prejudices away.