Hispanic saying the N-word?
Soooo.. hey yall black 23(F) here, been talking to this Hispanic dude on and off for about a year now. He came here illegally maybe four years ago and works construction around other Hispanics and African workers (will become relevant later).
His English was never that good, it’s improved in the time that we’ve started talking, but he had an European English teacher and works around Africans with a thick accent so his English is a bit finicky. Today while chatting on the phone we somehow got onto the subject of race and racism, me at some point asking if his family was racist too and him asking me the same. After telling him that my mother really just only dislikes white people (sorry it’s true LMAO) he proceeded to imply that was a good thing and that he was black, and then said he was “a nigga” 😐 The thing is though, he didn’t seem to be joking. I know the concept of race is a bit different where he’s from (Nicaragua, if they even have one) and he is a darker skinned Hispanic man working around other black folk, so the n-word usage didn’t really surprise me, however i immediately told him to never say that word and tried to explain (rather poorly) why he shouldn’t.
He didn’t continue to say it but I don’t know in what way I should have reacted and if I’m being too understanding or not understanding enough in this situation. I wasn’t surprised, and I want to be disappointed but I can’t say it wasn’t one of my fears/expectations with dating certain foreign men as I stepped out on this journey. How do yall feel about this? He’s a cool guy but would you cut him? I don’t think he meant offensive by it but does that even matter? Would I be wrong to continue to speak with him?
Be nice to me I’m new to this 😭
EDIT/UPDATE:
Based on the responses it’s sounding like I should have an additional conversation to set a stronger boundary and leave it at that. At this point if it happens again he’ll simply be blocked.