racist nonsense

All the recent fuss about Big Brother and alleged racist comments about the Indian actress. Racism of course is bad, but we do seem to make it out to be the worst possible thing in the world. You can call someone stupid, or incompetent, or talentless - or worse insults, with no response at all, but call them a "Paki" (or similar) and you have the wrath of half the country on your back. Why? Why is it worse to insult people by reference to their skin colour or ethnic origin? I'm half Irish, if people call me "paddy" thats fine. The Aussies call us Poms, and thats OK, we call them Aussies, and that's Ok. But colour-related insults are an abomination, for some reason. I'm not advocating racism and i do not practice it, but it seems a strange set of double standards we live by. Really any kind of insulting or abusive behaviour or language is wrong, but why get so hung up on racism? I think its the least harmful aspect of BB!