I refer to every one of my male friends as "boy." Well, my black friend of a few years finally looked at me and said "You know calling me boy is kinda racist, right?" And I'm like wut.
"Yeah, white men that looked down on blacks called them boys. Now I'm cool with you calling me that, but I just didn't want you to accidentally say that to a triggered brother."
That's the story how I was accidentally racist
My grandfather called every male more than 10 years younger than him boy and every female ma'am, regardless of age, and with very few exceptions to either. Him not calling someone boy because they were black would have been more racist to him because he didn't really care or notice color, as long as you weren't an asshole that's all that mattered.
"Yeah, white men that looked down on blacks called them boys. Now I'm cool with you calling me that, but I just didn't want you to accidentally say that to a triggered brother."
That's the story how I was accidentally racist