Taylor Tomlinson has an amazing bit on this.

This is exactly how systemic racism works. White people weren’t kept as slaves and called ‘cracker’ as a label. Black people were kept as slaves and called the N word as a label. The implication, via the word, is that they were less-than-human. We’re just about back to the time period where lawmakers openly use the N word again. I’m in Canada, yet even from here I can see it happening, and it’s terrifying for me, so I can’t imagine what it’s like for American people of colour, or women, or 2SLGBTQIA+, etc.

If you are one of those people, whomever is reading this, just know you have allies.