Do you think it was racist?

A young fellow whose African ancestors were slaves in the US, worked for me. One day he met my next door neighbor who had recently moved to Canada form Ethiopia. The young man greeted my neighbour with a "Hey Brother". My neighbour looked at him like he had holes in his head. The neighbour felt no kinship to the young man at all. Skin tone be damned. I had great difficulty keeping a straight face.