I agree 100%. I have learned from people from different walks of life all over this country and other countries. Some good things as well as bad. But in order to extract what they have to offer, race, religion and ethnicity should be secondary, and their character value or lack of should be the primary determinant in how you process what you extract from them.
You're right. I learned a lot about how people think in going to the 26 different countries I've visited in the Navy, as well as have learned a whole lot from Sailors who were different from me (i.e. black, because I'm white), and have also learned that if you treat others as you'd like to be treated (matter of fact, says so in the Bible), that you can get a lot further.
Overseas, I would always carry a phrase book with me (they were handed out on the Quarterdeck as you were departing the ship) and found out that around 80 percent of the people in Europe speak English. I'd spend around 3 to 5 min. trying to speak their language (and pretty much butchering it in the process in most cases), and they would finally stop me and tell me they spoke English. It wasn't so much that they wanted to laugh at me (although some did, I even had a very interesting experience in Spain), but rather they wanted to see if I would put in some effort into trying to meet them on their level.
I also remember going home for a weekend with a friend of mine who was black (like I said, I'm white), and we went club hopping. In one of the clubs we stopped in, I was the ONLY white dude in the place, and had some big black dude come up to me and ask me what I was doing in the club. I responded that I was shooting pool (and let me tell you, this dude was twice my size), listening to good music and looking at pretty women. He stared at me for around 30 seconds, then shook my hand and told me I was all right.
One of the better nights in my life.
If I'd been a bigoted asshole, I would have left there in a gurney, heading for the hospital.
But......................because I showed him I was there for the same reasons he was, we connected at a human level.
Like I've said before, I don't really care what you look like, or what your personal beliefs are, I just care about whether or not we like each other, and if you can teach me something I don't know.
Bigots and racists be damned.