There is no more reason to refuse to use the word "denigrate" than there is for the flipside refusal to use "illuminate". That's silly. Consider these lines from "Lift Every Voice and Sing":

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered;
Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

There is nothing racist (or even racial) about those uses of "white" and "light". To allow such concerns to dictate wholesale changes in not merely English-language but general human connotation and phrasing is ridiculous. With due respect,

Haruo