Pot/Kettle simile racist???

[Ptichka]

For me, it's always hard when I talk to my Russian friends. Here, no matter what the "official PC" term is, "black" sounds OK. In Russian, saying "black" about a person of color is extremely derogatory (though the term usually refers to the people from the Caucus states because they tend to be darker-skinned than Russians; not to be confused with "Caucasian" as in white). OTOH, saying negro sounds perfectly OK. Gets quite confusing for me...

 

[Piel]

To me, this sort of situation is dead easy. If you say something without meaning any harm by it, and then another person comes up afterward and says. "You know, Mathman, I was offended by your choice of language," -- well, all you have to say is, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone."

ITA Mathman. IMO intent is everything.