Well said Joe. To my mind, this has been an open and interesting discussion - no personal remarks or insults but robust challenge on both sides.

One of the points that gets missed is the notion of trust. If people feel threatened they are more likely to feel offended or act defensively. It's clear, certainly in the US, that many many black people (with good reason) do not trust the authorities and particularly the police. I think that the situation in the UK is better but still has a long way to go. The small considerations, such as the topic of this thread, that we can show can help to rectify the deficit of trust.

Bonzo, you suggest that most black folks will not be offended at all. Sure, there will be many black people who are extremely secure in their environment and trusting of the white people they encounter. In those cases there will often be banter on both sides as Senoufu describes. No one will be offended because the trust is there. Would that were the case universally.

As a white, heterosexual, English man I've never suffered prejudice. However, a friend of mine, a white, heterosexual man suffered considerable prejudice over the years at work ...... because he was Irish.