Chara... I mean, they are evil in a way? Just not in the way most people think.
If you read into the lore, specifically what you learn from Asriel and the tapes from the True Lab, Chara ended up in the Underground after a failed suicide attempt. They didn't seem to like humankind at all, and probably wanted to remove themselves from it by jumping down a big hole. And then later on, their 'master plan' with Asriel was to kill themselves using buttercups (which they learned were dangerous after accidentally poisoning Asgore) and have Asriel absorb their soul, gaining godlike power. They then wanted Asriel to cross the barrier and get the souls needed to break the barrier by killing the other humans. The only reason this plan didn't work is that Asriel was simply too nice to go along with it.