I must say, this is pretty new to me as I grew up in the US and aren't familiar with the history of the UK. However, I'm learning a lot from this post.

That being said, I think this is an example of someone saying something racist and not realizing how racist it sounds. People do it a lot and then get defensive over it.

She may not realize it was racist by stating that, but it was. Kind of like an ignorant racism.

If that makes sense.