You are a developing expert in your research topic and you can speak with authority on the subject. Part of maturing as a researcher is learning about the kinds of haphazard thought processes audiences routinely go through as they process your work, and giving them professional responses that clarify matters. For questions like this, you really don’t have to worry about looking racist. The criticism they made of you was not well thought through. You will look good if you can give a polite and thoughtful answer in response that holds your ground without dismissing their interests. I’m sure you can figure out a better way to phrase it than me, but an example might be “Advanced AI poses a variety of challenges, including both risks to minority communities and pandemic threats. Both of these areas are important and need further research—especially given the outsize impacts of pandemics, including COVID-19, on minority communities.” Of course, coming up with this in the moment is not easy, but I think it’s helpful to think about how you would have liked to have answered the question after the fact.
Anyway, no cause for humiliation, and I expect that plenty of your audience members found the dismissive criticism from that audience member to be offputting, even if they didn’t say so.
You are a developing expert in your research topic and you can speak with authority on the subject. Part of maturing as a researcher is learning about the kinds of haphazard thought processes audiences routinely go through as they process your work, and giving them professional responses that clarify matters. For questions like this, you really don’t have to worry about looking racist. The criticism they made of you was not well thought through. You will look good if you can give a polite and thoughtful answer in response that holds your ground without dismissing their interests. I’m sure you can figure out a better way to phrase it than me, but an example might be “Advanced AI poses a variety of challenges, including both risks to minority communities and pandemic threats. Both of these areas are important and need further research—especially given the outsize impacts of pandemics, including COVID-19, on minority communities.” Of course, coming up with this in the moment is not easy, but I think it’s helpful to think about how you would have liked to have answered the question after the fact.
Anyway, no cause for humiliation, and I expect that plenty of your audience members found the dismissive criticism from that audience member to be offputting, even if they didn’t say so.