My mom called blacks ‘colored’ up until the early ‘90s when some friends of hers told her it was no longer acceptable.
There was a time when that was the non-pejorative term. It ain’t easy being PC.
My wife’s grandmother (she dies recently at 92) was still using “colored” and according to her and her mother, grandma never said the n——— word because it was distasteful and only white trash used it.
She never had a bad word for anyone, it was part of her charm.