IMO this is kinda why we HAVE racism still. He didn't think anything of it until he analyzed it and thought about it. If people got offended less when race comes up... Unless the guy DID want to insult a white guy all he did was bring up an obvious physical description. And on that subject I never got "black" as racist... it's skin color. African-American IS a race, so why is that not racist. Considering 99% of African Americans never set foot in Africa or plan to... Imagine if "white" ppl were called European-Americans that would be funny and prove how stupid most "racist" comments are.
IMO if it's not meant to insult someone (i.e. it's just a fact) then forget about it and move on
It is the same type of thing with mentally handicapped people. It used to be, they were called retarded, because that was the clinical diagnosis. That got a bad stigma because people associated retarded with something bad. So, then it wasn't ok to say someone was retarded, they were mentally handicapped. Now that has a stigma so they are coming out with new things to call these people that currently don't have a bad stigma. In the end though, it won't matter. The stigma is there because of what it represents and the new term will become soiled as well.
It used to be Negro, shortened to another N word, then black, then African-American. Pretty sure that is getting changed too. The people making these dumb PC rules don't understand that no matter what you call blacks, it is going to be associated with people that are black. They want a new term that isn't associated with blacks but by using the new term, they defeat their purpose.
In short, people are dumb. Really dumb. Heck, Seattle just passed a thing that brown bags can't be called such, especially bringing a brown bag lunch because that will offend brown people.
Personally, I think all these names are one of the biggest problems. Instead of facing the issue head on and dealing with it, we are pussyfooting around it and never solving anything.