I wouldn't say "scarred", because it's an open wound. It's tempting to think that racism was defeated, first in the Civil War and then with Civil Rights -- that's certainly the story I was taught in school.

But that doesn't reflect what black people see every day. They see racist harassment on web sites every day -- I have already reported three on Quora today, and it's not even lunch time. The well-publicized murders of black people by police are just the tip of the iceberg -- it's followed by a massive justification from millions of people why this particular unarmed and innocent black person nonetheless deserved to die, reliably, every single time. That acts like terrorism, and every single black child is taught to be afraid of police because they have to be.

This isn't just a hangover of past racism. It's active and ongoing, and people who downplay the significance of it are perpetuating it. There's more to this story than a single chance racial slur, as reported elsewhere, including repeat offenses. But more to the point, it's more than just a word. In the US it's more than just hitting a scar. It's tearing at an open wound, and each time we make excuses for that, it continues.