Don't kill the messenger here... But I honestly didn't know that was a racial word for the longest time.. probably because it's not in my vocabulary and I didn't hear it that often, but I did hear it from time to time, usually from old folks.
Of course that's been true in my life for other words too...
I had a black roommate do a weird move (which did look very much like someone doing charades of a monkey), and his white friend stated that out loud and my roommate got semi-offended. Up to that point, I honestly didn't realize monkey was used as a racial slur. I just hadn't heard it used in that context.
My point being, I honestly haven't known what is or isn't a racial slur until some situation brings it up.
Don't get me wrong, he should of run into that one by now and certainly known better.
But to a certain degree, it's almost becoming a job in itself just to keep up with all the different things people will take offense too. And different people react different ways...
One situation I've always found interesting, if musicians put racial slurs music, then can fans of all races sing those lyrics? Or do other races have to skip that lyric? I've seen it both ways... I just avoid it to stay clear of that potential situation.
But I did find it funny when a black rapper brought white fan on stage with him to sing his song, and when the white person sang the racial lyric correctly, the rapper got upset. In which I think the rapper is wrong...as your fans are going to sing your lyrics... if there is certain words you don't want them to say, then don't have them as lyrics.
But this has always been a tough subject that is always treated differently in different situations, and I think that's tough on us as people to choose which direction... and I assume Funchess just couldn't quickly think of another easy way to describe it, how he could see people where smiling in their eyes, and explained it in a poor way.