[DemonOfTheFall]

Taking 'offense' can be defined as more than feeling hurt - it can consist of feeling anger at the stupidity of others, it can be a sense of sadness that you will never feel entirely safe, and it can be an unwelcome reminder that you are a stranger.

Most people of empathy will understand this intuitively or have read widely enough to begin to understand it.

I wonder whether people who brush this kind of thing off have ever known what it's like to feel pure terror; to understand that no matter what you do, you are nothing more than a second-class citizen. I appreciate that people shouldn't feel anything close to that level of emotion these days, but reminders of a history that is all too current certainly don't help.

To deny that this sort of thing is likely to be insensitive in today's socio-economic context is entirely false. To admit otherwise is ignorance. To not care either way is borderline misanthropy.