[B Dids]

I usually lean towards the PC side of things, but I think you're off base here.

The fact is that there does exist a group of people who simply refer to everybody else as "brother". It's one of those weird things that isn't really regional, but we all know it exists.

While if you were really thinking, it's probably on the polite side of things to avoid saying that to somebody who might take it the wrong way, but at the same time I think it's fair that a plack person in this spot understand that the person is likely not using the word with the same meaning.

The original poster clearly has some issues with race, and is overreacting and projecting some attitude onto the guy he met. However, it does sound like the guy he met probably overreacted.