Racism is in the meaning, not the word, anyway. I've yet to hear someone say Eskimo with racist intent. An inaccurate descriptive term isn't necessarily an instant racist term.
you mean like how the N word isn't racist if it just means a certain type of person and "white people can totally be n-s too!"
No, words can very much be racist, and the only people who get to decide if a word is offensive are the people they are referring to.
More like how
black people can use it and no one thinks of it as racistic term, but if white people, say, someone who has grown in mainly black populated neighbourhood, uses it despite using it on
exactly same meaning, it somehow becomes racistic?
I know for a fact that there are lot of black folk, both in and out of USA, who don't take offence
because none is intended, just like I don't mind being called "snowflake" or some other term that could be considered racistic in some other context.
TL;DR: Intent and context deside if usage of words are racistic, not if someone is offended by them. Because no matter what you say there will allways be someone who finds it "offensive".
Ninja'd:
If a person says something perceived as racist, or in other words something which may be construed as you putting your race above that of another's, then it's not racist if you did not mean to make any comment on superiority. It was just insensitive.