Richard:
Thanks for your message. I know your intent was not harmful. I grew up in the South and had a great grandfather who was a Wizard in the KKK, so I have had a lot to apologize for myself. I don't think it is being PC to avoid these terms, just respectful of our fellow humans.
I received another message offline that was hateful and nasty. The person who wrote it did not have enough guts to post it publictly. I looked for the books, magazine articles, etc. written by this person, but I didn't find any. Guess all he can do is to write nasty, name calling private emails. Thanks for making my point for me and wish others could have shared.