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human
CMV: Words that have a history concerning racism, shouldn't be regarded as racist because of their history, but rather judged based on the situation they're used in.

TL;DR at the bottom. I'm not English, so I might use the wrong words. Sorry!

Let  me start off with, I believe that I am 100% against racism, but PLEASE  correct me here if I'm acting too uneducated. Let me sketch a scenario.  If someone refers to a person who has an extremely dark skin color as  "black", that's probably just because it's more convenient to say such a  short word over "African American". You'd also know perfectly well what  they mean; they mean essentially the same thing, a person with a dark  skin color.

I  got into a small fight with my sister, because someone we know had a  painting of a black woman (in my language, Dutch, it's the word  "Negerin", so the female version of "Negro", not the racially heaviest  word in Dutch), and I used that Dutch word to refer to it. She then told  me that I shouldn't be saying that word, because it would get me in  trouble if I said that word with the wrong people. I think her point is  fair. I wouldn't advise throwing around racially debatable words when  there's people around who will not appreciate that. But I for one would  never do that, which I believe she knows perfectly well.

That  got me thinking, why do we regard such words for the "weight" they  have? Again, I abhor racism in all possible ways. But I don't quite  understand why it's logical to avoid words that have a history, when  it's not at all relevant to bring that up. I know that (for example) the  history of slavery plays a role in some people's lives. I get why they  wouldn't like someone who hasn't been impacted by that, like me, using  N-words left and right, as it might give off the vibe that they think they're above them, because of their skin color.

But  I think it would be so much more convenient to quit looking for racism  when it isn't really there. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should *deny*  it when people are racist, or forget the horrible things that have  happened for this reason. But if we could work towards a society where  we don't have to work our way around certain words (etc), especially  because we understand eachother perfectly well in both ways, that'd be  better in multiple ways.

Firstly,  I think it'd put a lot less pressure on the subject of racism if  there'd be more tolerance from both ways. For example, if a supposed man  prefers to be called a woman, I'm perfectly fine with that. They'd  probably just ask me to do that, and not blindly expect me to know that.  That's the way I envision the direction this would go; if people aren't  comfortable with racially relatively light words, such as "black  person", they are more than welcome to tell me, respectfully, and  personally I'd respectfully continue my life without saying such things  around them. (Again, please please correct me if I'm mistaken about the  weight these things have in the US, I've never experienced that.)

Secondly,  I don't think (haven't had experience with) high enough "racial  sensitivity", in the sense that it has never been an issue for me to  point out someone's race. I don't want to bring my personal life into  this too much, but let's say my Asian / Middle-Eastern friends don't  mind the fact that they're from that area, even when it's pointed out.  It's their history, but it doesn't play a big role when it's brought up.  (3rd time: I don't know how sensitive this subject lies with the  average (black) person in the USA, where it seems to be a bigger issue  than in the Netherlands.) I think it'd be beneficial if your race, and  the history of your people, would be something you can rise above, when  talking about it.

If  you have any opinion about this, be it with or against me, PLEASE  comment! My sister and I have a very different opinion about this, and I  don't want her to hate me because of my opinion, so if you think I'm  wrong, please take a minute to explain it!

TL;DR:  Racism sucks, but we shouldn't look for racism when it isn't there. We  should judge situations, not word-usage etc., when pointing out racism.
gpt
The only thing that matters is how people feel when you say a certain thing. It doesn't matter if you mean it in a historically racist way or not. Therefore it is to be avoided unless you want to be an asshole who thinks they can tell people how to feel.