Due to racist propaganda in the US during the 80s and 90s. Crack cocaine was portrayed in the media as a “black” drug, and many of the news stories about crack were specifically about it’s effects on black communities.

While the name isn’t inherently racist, in and of itself, it does still carry some racial connotations behind it. Maybe it’s different these days for zoomers, but growing up during the “crack epidemic”, as it was called, and seeing the way it was covered in the news, I can understand why some people are resistant to the name.