I totally get what you're saying, and I know any comparison of different groups with different troubles is tricky. They're not identical. But I'll stand behind

I totally get what you're saying, and I know any comparison of different groups with different troubles is tricky. They're not identical. But I'll stand behind the analogy. Take a look at how 1950s professional men in Mad Men call their female coworkers "girls." You know what the legal context was? Women were literally a lower caste than men. Didn't have the same rights to divorce, didn't have the same rights to appear in court, didn't have the same rights to serve on juries, didn't have the same rights to take many respectable jobs, didn't have a right to equal pay for the jobs they could take, didn't have the right to stop their husbands from raping them, didn't have the same rights to inherit property. 50-year-old women were called "girls" by 30-year-old men because the law itself treated women like servants, wards, or objects rather than independent adults. And this was true throughout the United States when you, or your mother, or your grandmother was born. So I do think it's similar to the kind of issues that black men have with "boy." But thanks for your thoughtful response, even if I disagree. I try not to rant about this stuff, and I hate that we have to cope with it all in order to have a simple conversation, but here we are. There's plenty of crappy history to go around.