As your first sentence says, it's a question of awareness. I would not do those things but I know that there's a whole lot of people on the planet who are unaware that using the N-word, for example, is offensive to many. In Harbhajan's case, I agree with you, I'm pretty sure that by now everyone in the Indian cricket team knows that it has racist implications.all the Aussie team formally educated on the fact that it is a more serious word to use to an Indian. And if it happens again, they should be banned.
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I disagree, in the circumstance that you are dealing with someone from another culture. To use your example, if you had a visiting group of Americans, would you use the n-word to them? Or if you had a visiting group of Jewish people, or Gypsies, would you use the Nazi salute or display the swastika near them?
Whether he actually did say it is another thing...