While I agree that SO can be hostile, I hardly think it's fair to assign the blame to SO for the insecurities of some users. If the answer is given without regard to race, religion, creed, sexual orientation, etc., then misconstruing it as doing so is the doing and fault of the asker.

It's looking for offense where there is none. Frankly, I have never seen racist comments on stackoverflow. I have seen curt, and even rude answers; but not bigotry.

At the risk of sounding intolerant, if for example, a black programmer takes personal offense at a brusque technical answer on SO, he/she can get the fuck over it. We are not on SO to talk about their insecurities. We are on SO to find answers to programming problems. It's not the community responsibility to tiptoe around a users self-esteem issues.

Again, this isn't to say SO couldn't be a kinder place, but dear god, spare us the bleeding heart spiel for once.