That’s an interesting point. I think the sheer fact that Americans with darker skin might be the descendents of slaves might do something psychologically to some people and shape their identity in a different way.

But I also think that probably many Americans including the ones from European ancestors are probably quite far detached from that culture anyways. And I wonder if Americans with unknown origin couldn’t just do a DNA test if they wanted to know their ancestry and get in touch with the specific country be it from Africa or partly European if it was really that meaningful for them.

I for example don’t really care about my ancestors. I might come from slaves but I don’t really care as I mainly focus on the present. But every person is different in that regard.

I just don’t think it’s morally good to use a word that has been used as a racial slur and to radically devalue and enslave people and make it socially accepted for people with a specific ethnicity to say. Imo this is the essence of racism and exactly what went wrong in the past with exactly that word. It doesn’t matter if a word is only used by people considered “white” or “black”, it’s the same thing and just not right.

For example in Germany they have a slang called “Digga” (used instead of “bro” or “dude”) which confusingly kinda sounds like the N-Word but it has nothing to do with it and has no racist or negative connotation at all and is used by everyone no matter their ethnicity. If Americans would use a similar slang that also has no racist background let’s make one up and call it “Brazz” and not make it exclusive to a skin type I wouldn’t see any problem. For example they already have “dude” and “dawg” which are perfectly fine. But the n word is just not okay if you asked me.

Yes I agree it’s really weird. And the fact that some people would see a person as “white” and others see the same person as “black” just shows how absurd this concept is and that there isn’t such a thing as distinct human races (also skin tones can change depending on how much sun exposure someone gets). All that is made up racism to artificially help humans deal with hate, self-worth issues and finding belonging. But the reality is we’re all the same race who naturally look different which should be cherished. The only aspect a human should be judged by is personality.

Honestly all this obsession with ethnicity is making me pretty crazy as growing up I never had a concept of this and just saw people as people but nowadays it’s so strongly forced on you especially by the internet.

I also wonder why so many Americans still casually use the N-Word. It feels kinda surreal to use this considering all the weight and suffering that was connected to that word.

Imagine Jews or Germans with different ethnicity would be casually using the Hakenkreuz and slurs that Nazis used, as a slang in every day conversation in Germany. That would be unthinkable.

I did a quick Google search and it seems like there are many South American countries with a bigger Caucasian percentage than the USA. As of the 2022 Census, USA is 60.9% . Uruguay having 90.7%, Argentina 97% and Costa Rica has 82%.

In Europe for example the percentage of people identifying as black is even smaller and they’re an even smaller minority but even they still mostly aren’t separated and are culturally the same.

But didn’t South America also enslave “black” people?