[buboard]

They did not know you. To them you were "the stranger". Imagine them as blacks, saying the same things about "those strange white people". Racism is kin-preference , kind of ingrained in people, and it takes a sophisticated society like ours to rise above it because we, truly, don't need it anymore, it's a relic. Do you think that their view of strange people has a bearing on the other things that they said, or do you think their teachings express truths that are universal among people? There has been very intense research in the "racialization" and "genderization" of science and philosophy in the past decades, but maybe ask yourself if we learned useful things from it, things that are actually actionable.

Also, realize that american attitudes towards race are somewhat different from the rest of the world. Race in modern america is politicized, while for most of history around the world, races generally mixed with little political component, especially under great empires.