Everyone's a little bit racist (alright.)

I have a very good friend who is half pacific islander, making him half Asian. There was a day we were all hanging out at a mutual friends house and someone made an Asian joke, my half pacific islander friend got a little peeved, and none of us seemed to understand why he took it so personally. To us it was a lighthearted joke that we meant absolutely nothing by, to him it went deeper then that. Opinions weren't changed in this situation, but frustrations did grow. Although the word 'racist' was never thrown in, because it would have been to harsh for a group of 16 & 17 year olds, and as Watchel argues, it makes it impossible to have a conversation about race at all, it did cause an uncomfortable situation for us to deal with.