I'd be lying, if I said I'd never laughed at a racist joke. Jokes are jokes, and aren't meant to be serious. Believe me, coming from Rochdale, it's the most racist place I've ever known. People just openly use the term<snip>, whether being racist, or whether they are referring to a shop. In my mind, it's the way it is said - <snip>, is short for Pakistani, and I don't believe saying 'the <snip>, shop' is any worse than saying 'the English shop', unless any malice is implied. Plenty of people say <snip>, Black, when referring to weed. It's simply shortening a word. However, I don't believe racist people should use the term, as it's just being used as a racial slur. Again, it's all about the way it is used. It's years of racism that has made the word unacceptable to a lot. I don't even need to explain that I'm not racist - I find it disgusting, when I overhear people around here.