The word ****** has enjoyed more attention and controversial celebrity than any other word in the history of human languages.
The word originated as the mispronounced name of the region where most captive Africans were transferred from "slave castles" on the banks of the Niger River, to the vessels of Dutch, Spanish, Arab and Portugese slave traders. The bills of lading accompanying the slave cargoes noted the point of origin as the "Niger region," thus the respective slaves were identified as Niger people, mispronounced as ******, and gradually degenerated to "*******" on the semi-literate tongues of American slave handlers. So the most concisely literal meaning of the "N-word" is, slave.
Because the status of slave is indeed demeaning it is understandable why American Blacks might find it objectionable to be reminded of their abject origin and therefore would be anxious for the word, ******, and all recollection of what it once represented, to be excised from the English language. But this does not appear to be the case at all. In fact there is little question that the widely excoriated word is used far more liberally by Black Americans than by Whites.
The offensive nature of the word, ******, was acknowledged by many Whites who respectfully chose to use only the technically correct designation, negro, or the more amicable term, colored, both of which have since been deemed unacceptable by the descendants of African slaves. Subsequent to the civil rights revolution of the early 1960s, militant American negro organizations insisted that the term, "colored people" was demeaning, as was the word, negro, demanding that instead the acceptable designation should be Black, because it implies the political opposite of White. (This in spite of the fact that until then it was considered offensive to refer to a negro as black -- as in "black bastard").
At some point between the sixties and the nineties it was decided (by someone) that the proper way to refer to American negroes is, "people of color" (five syllables) and the most recent mandatory semantic is "African American" (seven syllables).
Thus far we have gone from Niger, to ******, to negro, to colored, to black, to people of color, to African American. Meanwhile, Blacks continue to use the word ****** in the presence of Whites mainly as what I perceive to be a verbal emblem of special license and exclusivity. I believe this endless etymological progression is, more than anything else, an exercise of ambitious political power. It is by virtue of this socially accepted proscription that Blacks have successfully intimidated Whites into tacitly surrendering an element of free speech.
While I personally do not believe it's okay to openly call someone a ****** (or any other offensive name) without some ample provocation, that word has become anathema, analogous to pronouncing the name of Satan during high Catholic mass? The word, ******, when used academically, is not in itself a malediction. Neither is it obscene, nor profane. It is a word that bears historical relevance and should not exist as a trigger for misplaced White guilt.
I believe that progress in the way of racial hostility in America will be manifest when the word ****** no longer serves to perpetuate recollection of abject status. No negro who regards himself as a whole human being and an equal member of society should be offended by any mere word.
