Why would you be mortified? Anyone offended obviously hasn't/didn't read the article. The context is evidently about calling a thing what a thing is, not racism. You go acting so scared about it you'll do yourself more harm.

Context is what defines these scenarios. The only other horror is to be scared of is to be perceived (by idiots) as potentially racist and there is no honour in fearing that.

As the great comedian Reginald D Hunter once said: when talking about British people coming up to him and asking him if they were accidentally racist in given situation: "... was there hatred in your heart?". In this case, evidently not.