There's also just old farts, I'm willing to bet my Grandmother never referred to Black Americans as anything other than negroes or colored people. She died in the 80s in her 70s. For her age, she wasn't especially racist, just old and a foreigner.I think also that there's a big and important difference between what one calls a person who doesn't mind, and what one calls a person who does mind. It doesn't matter what some imagined person in a theoretical situation might or might not object to. It does matter (or so I believe) if a person says outright "don't call me that" in a place and a language that are present. I think aside perhaps from some inconvenient peculiarity, falsehood or harm, a person's identity ought to be his business and not yours.
Languages and the words we use for minorities evolve, and if a term is not the current, accepted English term, then it's reasonable to presume that a person who insists on some other term is doing so in order to be controversial or offensive, or to be expressing in a backhanded way his disapproval of social progress.
Then there is my use of Black instead of African American as the descendants of slaves in the US are a distinct ethnic group and I feel African American lacks necessary clarity in most cases.
But for the most part you are right, insisting on using the outdated term is mostly just a troll move.
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