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There is a Bugs Bunny remark where he says “What a Maroon!” when it should have been “What a moron!”. I did not connect it to the slave connotation at all.

And you 'should not' make that connection to slavery EXCEPT that there has been a sea-change in our society and language! Remember Bugs Bunny is/was a riff on the Brooklyn (NY) popular characteristics of a wisecracking, irreverent PITA known for their unique English idioms. There are 'underground' depictions of Bugs where the language gets a LOT coarser and vulgar!

Then you have the use of 'Maroon' which has a homonymic-rhyme with real slavery/Creole/Caribbean terms like Quadroon (1 G.Parent black) & Octoroon (1 GG.Parent black). So it could be a riff on moron or a disparagement based on race even though there was never an actual race class of maroon.

BUT, in todays ultra-sensitive, hyper-critical language police as run by the media and academia, it is not what your word use is, it is how it sounds to the most sensitized and offense-prone listener that matters. The term microaggression was coined for these kind of cases as a weapon to be hurled against chosen targets! The bureaucrat who offended colleagues by identifying 'niggardly' budget allocations is a real historical artifact!

We have surrendered our language to the SJW language police and thus an innocent referral to "What a Maroon" will land you in deep succotash should the wrong ears PERCEIVE it!