Ok sure, I hear you. People who say "I don't mean to be racist, but.." almost always immediately say something racist, and never feel like it is racist. That s

Ok sure, I hear you. People who say "I don't mean to be racist, but.." almost always immediately say something racist, and never feel like it is racist. That seems exactly like "Not to excuse it, but.." - "Not to excuse it" comes out because your brain feels the need to say that, in the same way. Also I guess it's hard talking with people we don't know - assessing what to take for granted or not. Maybe you really did mean "not to excuse it"! Sorry. I wonder what 'attitude' Feynman actually had. I've never heard of anyone actually doing what he does in that story, have you? It's not much detail to go on, but it sounds like he thought it was funny? Or enjoyed the humiliation, was turned on. He can't have thought it was appropriate. Can he? I mean, people never did that, even thousands of years ago. Just seems like an extremely gauche 'joke'...demeaning, insulting. So does that book shed any light? Was everyone like that then? (I don't think so) [Disclosure: Besides his reminiscences, which I read as a kid, I've watched a load of his lectures, interviews and talks, (and introduced them to other people), as well as worked through as much of the 3 volumes of the Lectures on Physics as I could understand, a couple of times. He's one of my scientific heroes.]