A white man must never refer to a black man as "boy".

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Stop playing their game. You have far more in common with black people than you do with the people who want you to get wound up about what you can and can't call other humans. Be decent. And focus your anger on something important. There's a hell of a lot wrong with the world at the moment. These culture wars are designed to stop you noticing.

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Adult females get called "girl" a lot more than adult males get called "boy"

Double standards

There is no factual distinction between a "boy" and a "man"

Not everyone appears the age they are

"Actions speak louder than words"

Anyone could say anything

Anyone could find anything "offensive"

You brought up a good point. I have better things to worry about than if someone calls me a "boy" or "girl", too. (39 nonbinary). However I still feel insulted when they do that. Of course, they did nothing illegal or immoral, and it is not accomplishing anything for me to attempt to correct them. So I don't bother correct them. A couple of weeks ago a customer had the nerve to call me "boy". She was overall unreasonable and rude, I feel. I told her that I have a Dr note that I am not allowed to lift over 50 pounds ". "I don't care about the doctor note. Put it in the car!". That's just one example of how she was rude to me. But "customers always right ". The training videos at work say that if a customer is disrespectful or rude, tattle to a manager, but sometimes there is only one manager in the building and he)she is doing something else. Everyone has subconscious biases and, for all I know, the manager might be having sex with the customer. There is a video tape but the manager is not going to look at it. The customer might deny what factually happened. The customer has nothing to lose. The customer could get banned from the store at most. Minor inconvenience. I could get made redundant. The customer could tell the manager anything. For example, a customer was like "why is your posture like that? Are you afraid of black people?". All of a sudden the customer went from *shortfatbalduglyman had bad posture* to *racial discrimination*.

"Logic could be used to justify anything"

But the manager might believe the customer

You don't know what is going to happen

"At will" employer

Bert Newton called Muhammad Ali a boy on live television.

And lived.

Most people don't die from being rude.
Which doesn't make being rude okay.

He may not have lived if Ali clobbered him

Ali visibly wasn't happy.
Yep, the regular catchphrase was offensive to him.
He just had a bit more self control than some other celebrity from some recent gala.

Calling a black man a "boy" is like calling a black person the "N"-word.

It is a reminder of slavery, and of Jim Crow.

It was also used to emasculate a grown black male, elders are suppose to be respected.It was another way to show disrespect to a grown black man who might be older.

I've had a work colleague call who called me White Boy sometimes & he didn't mean anything offensive by it. It was just kinda the way he talked to us white guys sometimes. Me & him were the same age & I outranked him & he liked the way I ran things. We joked around sometimes & we both joked with various people who liked the joke.

In the American context

^^^^
This


^^^^^^^^^
And this

He is an epic cultural fail:
Bert Newton said to Muhammad Ali: "I like the boy."

Edit.
D'oh. Already posted.

Having grown up in apartheid South Africa, this is something I'm all too familiar with. My mother still cannot help but say racist things like this. Drives me insane! And she is autistic without being aware of it, so she really thinks everyone does (or at least should) think the same as her. She has got worse since my dad passed. I think it is largely fear based.

Racism is an excuse for what the real issue is, which is clash of cultures. If I don't understand why certain people behave differently from me and I have some idea that "my way is the only way", it's easy to be swayed by the narrative that they are somehow less that me or less than human. We all tend to want to find the simplest way of understanding something that requires the least of us and puts the burden on others.
The same thing is happening in Ukraine but there is no race difference to pin the problem on.

Kind of like how "colored" is offensive because that was the word used on the water fountains that black people were supposed to drink from.

there is something wrong with everything.

anything could be misunderstood when taken out of context.

besides, adult females often get called "girls".

adult males rarely have to get called "boys".

even junior high school males "guys".

and what is that, sexist?

double standards, same thing

Not an example of the world "becoming" anything new. This has been a taboo for a century.

During slavery White slave owners addressed their male Black slave servants as "boy".

And it continued under post slavery segregation when Blacks were still employed as servants. So its demeaning.

South African Apartheid was similar. So in the Twentieth Century it became taboo to address Black men as "boy", even by other Black men. Which is why American Blacks began to call each other "man".

Some parts of the English speaking world (like England itself) didnt have a racial hierarchy like that of the US or South Africa so thats not as much of an issue.


BUT in all fairness...humans are never consistent anywhere. Robin Williams played a Russian emigre in NYC in the movie "Moscow on the Hudson" struggling to fit in in America. Early in the movie someone informs him to 'never call a Black man 'boy'". Then later in the movie he hears his older American Black friend boast about seeing Charlie Parker play sax at Birdland, and say "that boy could blow" ( a Black man talking about another Black man). And Williams asks "why did you call him 'boy'". The friend replies "whadaya EXPECT me to call him? A 'hippopotamus'?". Sad funny moment that struck me as true to life. We are all like Robin Williams' character sometimes- even within our own nation's culture-trying to figure out the tribal taboos -of other tribes, and even of our own tribe- and the natives cant even be consistent.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to please everyone. I think Rule 34 of the universe is that if you can think or do it, somebody somewhere finds it offensive. I learned that it can sometimes be a waist of time trying to explain myself & apologize cuz others put words in my mouth & I get pi$$ed off & dig myself into a much deeper hole.