That you didn't answer the question.
Again, I'm absolutely NOT judging the people of a certain age who have used that term. Indeed, before a certain time in our country (that timing probably depends on what part of the country), that WAS the polite term.
But, that's a useful barometer of what generation you are.
This isn't playing "gotcha." Not everyone who used/uses that word deserves to be in the same category as the neo-nazi/white supremacists who use that word.
I was raised in a VERY small town. Race was never an issue or even a topic of discussion. When I went to grade school we had eight grades in a one-room school with one teacher and no black students. Later, for high school, I was bused to a town big enough to have a high school and we still didn't have any black students. I don't remember using any term for black people at all because there was no reason to. When I first went to college there were a small number of black students(less than ten) that got along with everybody. Although I do remember in freshman calculus the professor was doing an involved calculation on the board and made a mistake along the way. When he finally found his mistake he said "Oh, there's the n****r in the woodpile." He then realized there was one black student in the class and tried to cover his ass by asking him if he was Indian. The student replied "I am negro." There was a lot of tension in the room for a while but the student defused it. He was already very popular and became even more so after that.