Casual racism is when people not of a certain group use hurtful or derogatory words against that group of people, normally indirectly. I find casual racism to be a very interesting topic, as I am a young, African American male. I have seen how the racial slurs are an everyday problem. Some people who are not a part of the groups use these hurtful words in an offensive manner or to try to be “funny”. Part of the problem is within members of these groups of people, many condone the usage of these terms around people who shouldn’t be saying these hurtful words.

I don’t look at these people any differently because at the end of the day, everyone is human. In most cases, these people know the weight of what they are saying, or don’t care to know the importance of that word or how it originated. For example, I go to a primarily caucasian school, and I hear others exchange the n-word every day. It could be seen as a way of calling someone “bro” or their friend, but for people of color like me witnessing the exchange, we find it very offensive. The part that hurts the most is people with the same race as me who let this happen on a daily basis without trying to educate people about the importance of these derogatory words.
I think that today it may not seem like a big deal, but for people like me who are educated and care about the context of these slurs, it is. Unfortunately, the people the terms affect don’t really have the power to do anything about it, only those who cause harm can make a change. The excuse that “It’s just a word” is invalid because hundreds of years ago, it wasn’t just a word, it was meant to be really offensive, and to dehumanize African Americans and people of color.
These slurs still have significant cultural background to certain groups of people. For example, the n-word originated from the word “negus”, which means king or a member of royalty. Over time, colonizers came to Africa, and they started using the word to degrade Africans and African Americans. It is still being used today in a harmful or offensive way by other groups of people, but African Americans started to use the word for each other in a friendly manner.