We are not perpetuating racism, nor the selfish interests of the Americans. I’m not an American mate, and certainly not racist!
We are saying that this term was historically defined as such, and so should not be used to classify the economies of nations. It implies that some nations are of a lesser world than others, which is bad! We should not accept this!
Yes, language can change, but “first world” and “third world” is still rooted in prejudice against developing nations, there is a reason why many international organisations no longer use it.
Developing/developed is not fantastic either (albeit much better than first/third world) with lots of grey area, turns out binary classifications are not all that great for complicated things :/
Again, the idea of developing nations being in a “third” world isn’t good. Putting down people from being a “third world” country isn’t good. I am not advocating for this term, it is a stupid term that international organisations no longer use.
And yes, alternatives exist. Developed/developing is better, though not perfect, and there are other, more accurate metrics and classifications on the development of nations