It was during a class discussion, definetly thoughtless on my part. She didnt shame me, just explained how she felt about it. It was an english course so exploring the connotations of language was pretty typical.

I think of it as a moment that really thought me about the complexities of every day language & the impact of cultural tropes (like the light good, dark bad concept).

Idk lol I'm not trying to change your mind, I think you can use the phrase & will probably never get any push back for it. I guess this is mostly an explination why I used that example in the way above comment. For me, it's a charged phrase that can be percieved as derogatory.