Does "exotic" have racist connotation? [closed]

There are many words that have racist connotations in some contexts and not in others. I think you'd be hard pressed to make a case that talking about "exotic cars" or "exotic loans" would be perceived by a reasonable person as racist. Describing a woman as an "exotic beauty," on the other hand, may well give offense.

Trying to sort all the nouns in the English language into safe-with-exotic and not-safe-with-exotic would be a useless exercise. The best you can do is pay attention to how people use and react to language, and err on the side of caution if that's something that's important to you.

Collins Cobuild, the English Learners dictionary states:

adjective

Something that is exotic is unusual and interesting, usually because it comes from or is related to a distant country. ⇒ ...brilliantly coloured, exotic flowers. ⇒ She flits from one exotic location to another.

This has no warnings.

For reference, a swear word would normally add for example:

(very rude, feelings)

and a definite racist word would add:

(very offensive)

whilst a word that could potentially interpreted as racist or could be used to make a phrase racist might add:

This use could cause offence.

I suspect that any racist connotation associated with the word 'exotic' would be in the context, rather than with use of the word itself.

EDIT: More specifically, the intent with which it's used, like a knitting needle being an offensive weapon.

I think the largest issue with exotic is it (like the infamous "flesh-colored" crayon or band-aid) presupposes a shared default cultural context, which is increasingly rare in today's globalized society. As such, it's become a much less useful word, and it comes across as tone-deaf when used in any context where a shared cultural context shouldn't be assumed.

It might be best to replace it with words that are either more descriptive or that are more clearly referenced to your own experience (not to a culture that you assume your listener shares):

The food there was quite exotic. >> The food there was all unfamiliar to me.
She has very exotic looks. >> Her facial features are very non-European.
We're planning a trip to somewhere exotic. >> We're planning a trip to a country on the other side of the world.