"Bud" now racist?

We read:

"Is "bud" the new "boy"? As a black man -- even in a "post-racial America," where a black man now occupies the White House -- I still wonder. Usually the way it happens is I'm somewhere out here in the Windy City, or near my home in the south suburbs, minding my own business, going about the daily fare, when suddenly I hear the annoying call -- "Bud" -- or some similar moniker, dangling from the end of some salutation: "Thanks, bud." "How can I help you, bud?" "What's up, bud?"

Sometimes I am running errands near home -- buying tires, searching at a home improvement store for a toilet flapper valve; or near my office on Michigan Avenue, purchasing a new mailbox; or on a Loop elevator, or in a downtown lobby. And whether it is bud, buddy, boss, pal, pimp, or playa, all of it offends. For I am none of these.

The offenders most often are white, sometimes younger than me and almost always in service or blue-collar positions. Most often it is the "b" word that is used. It feels too informal a title for perfect strangers, especially when I suspect they call other full-grown men sir.

Source

Such forms of address can have genuine intent. The equivalent term among Cockneys (and Australians) is "mate". Cockneys are working-class Londoners. When I bought a newspaper off a Cockney street vendor in London, how I was addressed depended on the paper I bought. If I bought a working-class paper such as the "Sun" or "Mirror", the vendor would say as he took my money "Ta mate" ("Ta" means thank-you). But if I bought the "Times" or "Telegraph", he would say "Ta guv", in recognition of my being one of the "bosses". So "mate" actually conveyed the friendly message "You are one of us". So I think that the black guy above is not considering all the possibilites.

Posted by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).