Anyone who hates an entire group of human beings based upon the actions of a random member of the group who they once met or saw on TV... is not rational. And their opinion is neither valid nor rational. To act like they have a point puts us squarely on the side of the problem.
I'm not saying it doesn't happen - it does, a lot. Many people hold bigoted views against groups of human beings wholesale based upon the behavior of a few. But it's one thing to acknowledge a fucked up reality, and another to legitimize it. Never legitimize prejudice.
Asking Jewish individuals to "improve their behavior" in response to antisemitism legitimizes antisemitism. Asking Hindu individuals to "be nicer" in response to anti-Hindu discrimination (e.g. in the Gulf) legitimizes the discrimination, and so on.
Similarly asking Muslims to "smile" to fight back Islamophobia legitimizes Islamophobia. To be bigoted against an entire group of people and to seek to take away their rights based upon the actions of some of them is not rational and should never be legitimized.
That's not to say that everyone shouldn't be kind, generous, forgiving, law abiding etc. But let's be clear about the sources of racism - it's about supremacism, intolerance, and refusal to coexist. These are not the fault of the victims.
You don't have to be anything to deserve your full human rights. You don't have to smile, you don't have to look pretty, you don't have to save kids from burning buildings, you don't have to be super talented. All you have to be is a human being. Start and end here.
