My black friends like to be referred to as Black, but that could be an age thing. They were. young during the Black Power movement and when James Brown sang, "Say it loud. I'm Black and I'm proud". African American has always seemed silly to me. I don't refer to myself as European American. I'm also not crazy about people of color, since we are all basically people of color, plus when the term is used by very old people, they sometimes slip and say, "colored people". A term hated by most black folks.
Three is no nice word to describe someone with a very low IQ, but mentally retarded does need to go. I say that because when I was a child, there was a little girl who suffered from that condition on my Sunday school bus. The mean kids would make fun of her and call her "Retard". That was so hurtful. Maybe we should just use the word disabled or not use any term to describe people based on their intelligence. Besides there are many aspects of intelligence. And, some people who have Down's syndrome also have pretty. high emotional intelligence if they were raised well, while some so called geniuses lack anything resembling emotional intelligence despite being able to easily solve difficult math problems. I think we need to stop labeling people based on their intellectual skills.
The difference between black and nigger is, if you're signalling if you are an ally or not. You're signalling what team you are on. So now when being a racist is out of fashion, what happens. Racists start saying "black" instead of "nigger". They start on insisting on politically correct language. For middle class racists it becomes incredibly important to use non-racist language. They will find non-racially charged proxies with which to excercise their racism. As long as they get this right they can be as racist as they want to be, at their hearts content. They might even convince themselves they are not racist. While all of their actions suggest they are racist.
People talking about mentally changed people, on the other hand, are always talking down to them. Its unavoidable.
Its like the multitude of terms for cleaners. Whatever new respectful term we use will always end up being a slur. Usually immediately the new word is used.
Today a person using politically correct language tells you nothing about how racist or horrible people they are.
We are now living in an age of virtue signalling. Agendas are hidden. We're awash of outright bullshit on every front. It's hard to tell who the evil ones are today.
Trump voters say they are sick of slick politicians saying all the right things but screwing us over anyway. They're not wrong. This is a legitimate gripe they have with the politically correct hell that the left has become. The left will hand over the keys to power to any slick fuck who has figured out what words to say. Among the left it's reached the point where its all just one long Maoist people's court trials. It's the deplatforming and cancel culture. Actual opinions and political platforms and goals seem irrelevant to these people. I think it's a deep crisis among the left. It's really fucked now.
Annecdote. I have a friend who is in my social circal. One of these people who is, spiritual but not religious. She feels things intensely. Is guided by her intuition in life. Always super politically correct. Policing what other people say. But obviously super racist. Doesn't say it outright. But doesn't like having non-Danes included for various transparent bullshit reasons. That's the society we have gotten now