Yes, many (if not most) people do sometimes in certain moments feel an irrational fear of some other identifiable groups of people who are culturally or racially different from themselves. Those fears are not the product of reasoning or of a political theory, they are simply instinctive reactions to the unfamiliar, the unknown. In the same way, dogs are often nervous and edgy around other dogs (or other animals) with whom they are not yet familiar.

To admit to such a reaction is not a confession of racism, it's a confession that one is human, vulnerable, and like most other people.

Most people who refuse to admit that they have ever had such a reaction in some situation on a city street (or wherever) are not being honest with themselves...or they're not being honest with others, because they are afraid they will be accused of being racists.

"Everyone is so fearful of offending someone there is just complete denial that fear is even there."    YES, Martin! That is the God's Truth. It ought to be written somewhere in letters of gold.