I feel like we’re going in circles here. I’m not saying to move on from slavery because it’s important to remember our mistakes, but more in general to move away from intersectionality of slicing and dicing every single difference between us to build your own predefined personal checklist.
There are some pejoratives that solely describe black people, hispanic people, Asian people, etc which if used could draw an easy conclusion that the person has some form of prejudice toward that group. I don’t personally believe that “boy” is solely offensive to blacks or has significant extra weight. It’s a universally offensive word. I noted in a prior post that I doubt there was much positive dialog between slaves and slaveowners. Are we seriously going to strike all general insults hurled at slaves as only offensive or more offensive to blacks? If so, who gets to decide what that comprehensive list is and what weight each person is allowed to be offended?
The reason I say all of this is because as a non black, non white man, be prepared for me to react extremely harshly if anyone calls me a “boy.” This isn’t just a black thing, and I refuse to be told that my own personal beliefs that I am allowed to hold and what offends me.
Having said that, in the case of this guy, he’s probably prejudiced toward blacks. I am just not 100% sure as I would be if he used a more specific pejorative, for example.
Hope this helps. I’m not trying to diminish the struggles of black people at all. I’m just saying that we’re already so divided that perhaps we should be careful about further divisions that don’t make a lot of sense.