Not Sure
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How is that a racial slur? Caucasian people are light. Africans are dark. Indians are brown. Chinese are considered yellow (although I couldn't notice that shade even after trying). Similarly, South Indians are generally darker than North Indians. How can it be a racial slur? We are all more or less the same race from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
In India people even give their kids nicks like Blackey/Whitey/Brownie etc. (but in Hindi) based on their skin tones, or Billa (tom cat) when their eye colors are different. One of my very dear friends is called "Billa" by almost everyone, but never in abusive manner. And don't tell me that too sounds like a racial slur lol I think if that can be termed racist, then my 6 year old nephew must be a racist because when he saw an African-American in a restaurant for the first time, he was amazed and asked the man why was he so black. At least that guy did not think it was racist and I told my nephew that God gives different people different colors so that we don't get bored seeing the same all the time.
Anyway, Lord Krishna (Krishna is a very common name among Hindus), the hero of Hindu epic Mahabharat (which is considered the stem of Sanatan Dharm), the Avatar of Vishnu (who is also black but depicted blue) and revered as God by millions, was dark and was named so - Krishna, which means black (He too is always depicted as blue in all paintings/drawings to help people differentiate between other dark guys and Lord Krishna).
Another name of same Lord Krishna is Shyam. Shyam too means black. And Shyam too is a very common name among Hindus. We even have devotional songs where we sing how Krishna, the mischievous, rubbed his dark color on the fair and innocent Radha (his consort). Here the dark color does not signify mischief, but merely an aspect/skin tone of Krishna. Or the more famous song where the young and innocent baby Krishna asks his mother why is she so fair and why is he so dark etc.
In India it is not really the race or color that makes people wary of others. It is basically a form of an enduring xenophobia that came from the painful experiences of Islamic and then the British rule. This is the reason Indians are not very welcoming of anyone who appears even slightly foreigner - they will be as racist to Whites, as to Blacks, as to Yellows, as they will be to the Browns from our western neighbor (there is a slightly greater degree of caution exercised whenever the Brownies from our western border enter the country). And if you can take my opinion, the denigrating attitude toward the northeastern peoples (mongoloids) depicted in the media is quite exaggerated (but is also needed to calm people down). I am myself a Bihari, who grew up in South India, have friends from all over the world (including a couple of very sweet Chinese friends who are very close to me), and have an adoptive mother who comes from Manipur - Northeast India. (My real mother too is with me).
P.S. This is not the US/UK where we have to use highly complicated and confusing terms just to be politically correct. Nor do Indians like to needlessly apologize for things that others fail to understand.
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