I guess this discussion just goes to show every thing is relitive. I work at a maritime museum in the northeast(US), untill recently performing music of the sea. A few years back we were critisized because our coffee cups said something about"Sailors liked there coffee as strong as love, and as black as sin." So we discuss changing the cups. (I don't remember what we did.) A few months latter the complainant is at a music program I'm doing and requests, at different times, Paddy works on the railway, and old Moke pickin on a banjo. I, trying to be polite oblige with a very detailed explanation af both chanties. Latter ,so as not to insult him, I ask this guy. How come you find the comment "black as sin" offensive, yet have no problem with racial slurs like Paddy, and Moke. He answers. Oh those are just nicknames, anyway those cultures haven't suffered anywhere near as much. Everything is relitive.

Marc