I do not believe that words are innocuous. Some are created or used for a reason, and that reason is to intimidate or hurt or insult or prove one person's dominance over another. I think the use of "N." ever is not done by decent people, assuming they are informed and aware, and it is hard to imagine they would not be in this day and age.

I also think that people can go out of their way to be offended by stuff, like not calling things man-hole covers etc. And adopt a stream..that is too much by my reckoning. mg