What's that saying about the road to hell....? I have a very dear relative who often declares, "Doesn't matter what you meant to do. Doesn't change the outcome." Of course, the law does care about intentions, which can be perplexing. Parsing intention from effect is not easy.
In reference to the case you cite: race is never neutral. No matter how careful we may try to be, everyone (in the US, anyway) is affected by our collective history--which is one of racial insult. Tread lightly, no matter your background, because we all share a culture that was, is, saturated with racism.
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