It doesn't matter if it was just between so-called friends. ANYTHING Harry does has the potential to become public. And, as it happens, the minority may have just been going along to get along, as the schoolgirl who was noted earlier in this thread:

The uncle of Captain Ahmed Raza Khan told the BBC his nephew had never told the family Prince Harry was a 'good friend'.

A video has been published of Prince Harry using racist language to describe a member of his platoon.

The 2006 film was made public by the News of the World and shows the prince calling one of his then Sandhurst colleagues a "Paki".

Iftakhar Raja, who identified the man as his nephew Captain Ahmed Raza Khan, told the BBC he was 'deeply offended' by the remark.

Yes, I understand about the media and, I personally, like the Royals, though I don't know if I would if I were living over there, but they still will be held to higher standards and the young man needs to understand that. He CAN do better than his father and grandfather, I am sure, if he is educated. It's ironic since so many times minorities are told by their parents, peers, etc. to be on their best behaviour because they are representing all of their community and how they are all perceived. Unfair, yes, but it has been so.

My earlier remarks were more beyond the Harry thing, anyway, addressing some of the remarks made here about PC and racism, etc.