I'm sorry for the confusion, J. Frankly, I'm a bit hurt that after all these years you would think I'd believe you would say something racist (not to mention you'd think I'm that stupid).
The issue for me was that the context didn't exist. There was no way for me to know either way. If I would have taken it as a joke and replied as such, it could have put me in dutch if I were mistaken and you were serious.
If, on the other hand, I took it as you being serious, then I was going to wait on a follow-up from you as an explanation. When I received neither, I felt it was best to wait and see what happened.
We joke back and forth a lot, I know this. However, this time around there was no evidence of humor anywhere in the post. It was too straight to be sarcasm, and with no visual or contextual indicator, I couldn't respond properly.
Remember, you are a mod, and sometimes I'll see green before I see the joke, especially if there's no other clue as to whether you're serious or not. The word "niggling" is a fairly common word, but in certain regions of the country, it is apparently a ghastly racial slur (thanks
Locutus), and so I was concerned that I actually stepped over the line quite unintentionally.
It doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means in a fast moving thread I didn't pick up on your joke, and I took it seriously, which is generally the right thing to do when a mod makes a straight reprimand on something that may or may not be a racial slur. That's all that means.