Dear Carl:

I've seen the video of your lovely daughter proclaiming that you are not a racists. That's about as meaningful as Cardinal Bertone declaring that the Pope is infallible.

So let me make this easy for you. Let's assume that forwarding racist material in emails is not an indication of whether one is a racists.

But what I want to know is do you think the airplane-"N"-word poster, and the Irish-monkey video comments are racists? If those materials came to you again today, would you laugh at them and pass them on again to friends and family so they could get a chuckle as well?

Does your daughter think those materials are funny? Did she laugh when she saw them? If so, then perhaps neither you nor your daughter knows what racism means.