Racism or ignorance?

A hispanic girl in one of my cles was singled-out by a substitute teacher in a discussion about immigration. She constantly bombarded the girl with questions about the origins of her family and how she ended up learning both Spanish and English. The girl started to cry because she had been outed. However, the woman that was substituting was an immigrant from Israel who had a LOT of hate towards Americans saying they were more than racist and that "they had to learn a lot about culture and races". What do you think about her outing of a student in cl based on her color, was she just being ignorant or was it racism? Also do you think she was being prejudice towards Americans or just pointing out a generalization?