I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this, but You could have knocked me over with a feather when during the course of a conversation with a person I am very close to she (not what's her name) she casually referred to a native american in her workplace  as "Chief"

I immediately said to her that sounds a little racist and she said no he likes it when we call him that...OK that  statement may be true, I have no way of disproving it but it did pique my interest so I ( in my incredibly clever fashion) steered the conversation around to the other minorities at her workplace and how they were referred to. OK I outright said what about the others, and she said what do you mean, I said how about the blacks and Hispanics, and she said  we call the blacks "boys" and the Mexicans "Amigos".

Now this is a woman who I had enormous respect for (she worked her way to a position of responsibility on a large agricultural concern) and I could not believe that she would so casually toss off terms like that without even batting an eye.

Here's my problem, do I take offense at those words? I have known her all my life and I would like to think that neither of us were raised that way, or do I just ignore it and write it off to ignorance and stupidity? I don't really like either option, lose a dear friend or sacrifice my own principles?

What do you think?

Looking past the woodpile

MjrF