I think people say "I am not a racist, but..." and then say racist shit because they are either uncertain, ignorant, or actually racist:
1. Uncertain: They've learned from experience that if you use the wrong words with the wrong audience, you'll offend people. For instance, the term "hispanic" is considered correct on the East coast, but is seen as slightly derogatory by many people in the West who identify as "latino". The rules about what terms to use are arbitrary and changeable, and it's hard to keep up.
2. Ignorant: They don't know much about the history of racism in this country, and have said things like "black people sure seem to know how to have a good time" without understanding that this is a stereotype that was once used to belittle blacks, deny them their rights, and justify slavery.
3. Racist: People with racist views don't think they're racist. They believe that racism is simply hatred, so believing that other races are inferior doesn't qualify as racism. This is the kind of thinking going on in the mind of people like the Louisiana Justice of the Peace who refused to marry interracial couples, saying "I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way."

It's not just white people who say "I am not a racist, but...", by the way. White racism might still be the most powerful negative force in America's racial politics, but it's no longer the only one.

damn fine point about racism coming from all races.

"For instance, the term "hispanic" is considered correct on the East coast, but is seen as slightly derogatory by many people in the West who identify as "latino". "

FYI: I don't agree that Latino is derogatory: you may be mistaken in some cases, and the tendancy to use latino on the west and hispanic on the east is for accuracy. To many, Latino and Hispanic are distinctly different terms for different peoples: In NY, my hispanic friends include DRs, Haitian, PRs, and south american (north end) people, but my mexicana/central american co-workers self-ID'd as latino. Some felt Hispanics = mix of euro,afro and native american races, whereas others felt hispanic= island/carribean nations. But, FWIW no DR I've known would ever say they were "Latino", on either coast. FYI: per us census: 30& of DominicanAmericans self identify as black; 19% say white, and 39% go with Other Race: namely Taino NativeAmerican).
Race is a very personal thing, not unlike how different jews indentify based on heritage, while others feel it's a race, and others strictly see it as a religion-based culture that transcends blood/inheritance.

Some of us of mixed race actually choose when to self-identify and when not to. i.e. "My grandfather's asian, but I never volunteer that I'm asian as a description of myself unless I'm with japanese folks, - instead I'm a half-jew, native american/scottish highlander".
I think 'race' tends to lose its need for (foolish) absolutes when you've got 3 or more in you ;)

That's a great rundown of the diversity of the people that grouped together under the "latino/hispanic" labels.

I wasn't saying that "latino" is derogatory, though you've made a good point about how different people self-identify as "hispanic". However, for people in the Western U.S., "hispanic" was seen as the term used by government agencies that latinos often found themselves in conflict with. This, at least, is what I was told when studying social science in California in the 80s and 90s. This is no longer my field, and I could be out of date. Or just plain wrong.

As a Westerner (as in West coast, not Western Civ), my first visit to New York was a real education. The differences in the categories, terms, and attitudes toward race and ethnicity really showed me how arbitrary these ideas can be, and how an individual's experience of race is a combination of how he self-identifies, and how others identify him.

I'm white, and have learned from conversations with people who are Hispanic/Latino-a/Chicano-a that what really pisses them off are assumptions about who they are and how they identify. I think this is true for everyone - nobody ever asks me what my ethnicity is, but people I've worked with who are black/asian would tell stories about people trying to guess their ethnicity that were ridiculous.

I don't get the jaywalking thing the OP asked at all - once I saw a well-dressed white woman jaywalk in Belltown right in front of a cop car. The cop got on his PA and said "It's not nice to jaywalk in front of officer friendly" and that was it. I (a white not-so-well-dressed woman) accidentally jaywalked right in front of cops once, but I told them I didn't have my contacts in and had just walked when the guy next to me walked; they were more interested in trying to bust the guy for drugs and told me to keep going.

Thank you for the useful information on Mexican last names.

To answer your question, I felt the need to preface my statement with "I'm not a racist" because I'm tired of people going apeshit when I state something I observe.

I've also observed that Jews tend to be thrifty. Does that make me an Anti-Semite? If so, you better tell my Jewish friends.

"To answer your question, I felt the need to preface my statement with "I'm not a racist" because I'm tired of people going apeshit when I state something I observe."

It's not the observation that's racist, it's the selection bias of the observer.

I think the most offensive thing about the question was passive aggressive preemptive defensiveness.

Stereotypically Seattle.

Passive aggressive preemptive defensiveness, that is.

food = love in many cultures. Taking pics is like a family photo album of memories. SoundLikePuget: please see "Eat Drink Man Woman". I think the review/capsule for EDMW has a great quote that might help express the food/pictures importance:

"...the artistry of chinese cuisine.... Since the family members have difficulty expressing their love for one another, the intricate preparation of banquet quality dishes for their Sunday dinners serves as a surrogate for the spoken expression of their familial feelings."

That is a very informative answer, Thank you very much michiko swiggs

Good answer!

Jaywalking is typically an urban thing, not a black/asian/whitey/hispanic thing. We don't have as many (porportionally) white urban folks as black urban folks here in seattle. So yes, I higher ratio of WA state's total black people might very well be doing more jaywalking than the ratio of total WA state white folk. In the sticks/BFE, white people jaywalk all the damn time. There just aren't any crosswalks - they call it a cattle crossing there ;)

The questioner didn't actually say "Mexican" is a race. His question recognizes the truth that, if he had said something bigoted about Mexicans, we would have called him a racist.

And what's a race? Is it biological? Cultural? Every racial term we use is defined using different criteria. Often, the only thing that the people who get grouped under one racial category is the fact that the rest of the country groups them that way. I think a lot of Japanese (or Koreans, or Vietnamese) would be surprised to arrive in the U.S. and find that they had suddenly become the same race as everyone else in Asia.

Tom is correct. Witness the Shandy Cobane incident ("fuckin' Mexican piss"), which was widely reported as a "racial slur." Mexicans are not a race, but slurs/attacks against them as a group is usaully categorized as racism. Maybe it's sloppy language, but it's widely done.

I suspect the sloppy language actually goes in the other direction: The Chinese/Korean/etc "Japs" during WWII, Sikhs who got beaten up after 9/11, and now Honduran/Guatemalan/etc "Mexicans." Shandy Cobane's victim just had to be brown and Spanish-speaking, and Cobane would've called him a Mexican. Calling Shandy Cobane's actions "racist" is a natural reaction to the tendency to use "Mexican" to represent an entire race.

"Mexicans are not a race, but slurs/attacks against them as a group is usaully categorized as racism"

In this case "racism" is used as analogous to the less concise "xenophobic, hateful bigotry".

WASP guilt = PC-ness on steroids. True story.