Yeah, it's weird, my dad told me that Italians don't mind if other Italians use the term Guinea, kind of like how black use the "n" word with each other, but get insulted when others use it. My dad told me a funny story in relation to my mother's side of the family... my Nana (my mother's mother)seemed to deny she was Italian, but rather American Indian. So my dad went to visit my great grandparents (Nana's parents) in NY (back around '63 I guess). So he meets them and of course they wre this old Italian couple from Italy and my dad starts speaking Italian to them (he was in the Air Force in the '50's and was stationed in Italy so he knows Italian). So my grat grandmother says to Nana "Eh... sucha nice-a boy" which got Nana going. So dad says to my mother, in front of Nana, "Joy, I don't know how you're motehr is American Indian when her parents are a couple of Guineas" That REALLY put my dad in good with Nana...