But when equally unacceptable views or practices have come from someone who isn't white, we've been too cautious, frankly even fearful, to stand up to them".
Helen Szoke, chief executive of Oxfam Australia, said her organisation "would have put the reduction of poverty as the first benchmark" in the revamped aid program and was "cautious" about the role of the private sector.
So it's no wonder that companies are feeling cautious.
This month's Guardian/ICM poll suggests the answer is a cautious yes – but the party has yet to convince voters it has the right team and policies to run the country.
TNS, which is regarded as more cautious than other pollsters, said its findings suggested the gap between the SNP and Scottish Labour is much narrower than the 20-point lead given to the nationalists in a spate of other recent polls, but that it was still gloomy news for the Scottish Labour leader, Jim Murphy.
I remained overly cautious, and even as our child grew up and started to put two and two together, I was conservative in anything I said, lest I should be in contempt of court.
Last month Angela Merkel made the first, cautious signals in the direction of a higher defence budget at the inaugural visit of the new Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.
He claimed that growing numbers of young adults were "very cautious and depressed" about their futures in terms of buying a home, paying off debt and finding a secure job.
Cautious, crabby and a poor spectacle, it typified the way much of the tournament had gone.
Its cautious response suggests it is not convinced that will prove to be the case.
Howard, by then a cautious convert to the importance of symbolism to advance reconciliation, proposed a policy of constitutional recognition at the 2007 election but by then he'd run out of time in the Lodge.
