Context matters - and this context, of technologists discussing the security posture of a web browser, is heavily dominated by your "white middle class American".

"Honest Steve" might well have racist overtones in a different context, one where Steve can be used as a shorthand for a stereotypical outsider. And "Honest Achmed" wouldn't on, say, the streets of Cairo.

I'm not shooting the messenger, because I'm not shooting anybody. Calling out casual racism as I see it should not be construed as a personal attack on the speaker, because it is both unintentional and so pervasive.

That's not the joke being racist - that's society being biased. When you call the joke racist, you're completely missing the point, and shooting the messenger.

So are Irish Jokes are just a clever way of pointing out ingrained societal racism, too? I don't think so.