Study reveals surprisingly high tolerance for racism

Insults don't count. The comments were a response to what was perceived to be something annoying. The idea of an insult is to do just that - insult. If "nigger" offends the most, then that is obviously the best insult, as compared to (say) "That foolish fellow of African American descent!"

Why wernt African Americans studied about how upset they would get if a white person was insulted racially by an African American? I know... no African American would ever be a racists..

People choose to feel offended.

It's just as easy to think "he's ignorant and thoughtless" than to get all worked up about a verbal slur.

Feeling offended is highly overrated.

I think Dirk is right there being a difference between actively disliking a group vs. trying to be rude about a single individual and selecting what you believe will irritate them most. For example: with referring to someone as a son of a bitch you are not expressing dislike of all people who have mothers it is your intent/hope that the person in question values their parents and will/would be offended.

Racism happens in the minds of the people comments are directed at in as much as those who make the comments. Several years ago while in the service I new a man who was called into company commanders office on a complaint of racism, a significantly more serious accusation in the military than it would be in the general populous. The complaint was that he claimed black men couldn't play golf (this being pre Tiger days) This comment apparently followed a comment came in response to a comment about white men can't jump. Was the first man being deliberately and aggressively racist? Was the second man being racist or responding in kind? While the first two questions are hard to determine racism definitely occurred when the first individual chose to apply a different standard to similar actions based on the race of the participants.

So what category does it fall in if someone says "F you N word" have they been politically correct enough to insult someone without being racist, or are they just thought better of for their polite racism?

The research simply says people wont confront a rude person even though at a safe distance they would disapprove of their actions. I suspect this would be true of any kind of rudeness not just racism. It takes courage to stand up to bullies.

It reminds me of a place I used to work. There was a lab manager there who was looking for a dishwasher (lab tech). He didn't hire one black person who applied because he said he "couldn't work with somebody who was black". I felt crappy about it, and I saw the black guy in the hallway walking away, and thought maybe I should tell him, but I didn't. Or tell the professor who was running the lab, actually. Why not? I guess, training from a bad childhood to keep quiet when bad things happen. Things happen that make me uncomfortable, but my reaction is often to shut down, rather than addressing it.
It doesn't just apply to racism, other things also. I saw a kid with parents in the laundromat. The parents were blatantly verbally abusive, the kid was shrinking into her chair. Maybe somebody who knew what to say could find something effective to say, something that perhaps the kid would remember forever and it would support her. But I didn't. Or the time I saw a security guard yelling abusively at a little kid. I guess from a childhood of lying low, I learned to lie low.
People in general usually don't say what they think in social situations, when someone does or says something unpalatable. People try to go along. Even if they do say something, they often make less of it than it really is. They say what they think afterwards, out of the company of the person.
One time a guy called a teenage girl, who wasn't there, "fresh meat". I didn't say anything, but I did communicate my feeling about it nonverbally - I stared at him with my mouth dropping open, feeling hurt. That was because I took it personally, I felt it was an attack on women in general. So if you somehow feel *yourself* attacked by something, you do communicate about it.
I admire people who can act as a moral force, who have quick reactions to situations, and seeing that might help one to do that oneself. Also just working on it - I try to learn to communicate.
What they are talking about is just a general human behavior. We try to get along socially and that normally involves accepting things we don't really like.

zafouf:
You hit the nail on the head.

i didnt need a study to figure this one out. americans consider racism to be freedom of speech. you will probably get more heat for saying unpatriotic things than you will racist things, which is very sad. europe on the other hand is a little different, and you might get in trouble for saying patriotic things and racist things. not all americans are racist, but they definitely dont stand up against racism. although most americans may not tell racist jokes, you also wont find many americans fighting against racism.