>He stated "doing jobs white people don't like doing." How do you interpret this? This is, by definition, stating that by being white alone, the population carries a characteristic.

Only if you're a twat.

He was making a general observation: that minorities tend to do jobs that white people don't want to do.

And he's right. That's a simple observation, one which carries no value judgment. It just is.

That's not being racist; it's making an observation. If you think that any statement which differentiates between the races in any way - even if only tangentially - is a racist statement, then frankly, you need to get over yourself.