“Perhaps no word in our language has been debated so hotly for so long. The Americans have been in a complete tizzy over it for years. It appears on the obscene-word list of most American newspapers, only written as “n****r”. David Howard, a Washington DC city official, resigned in 1999 after using the word “niggardly” (in its fiscal sense) in front of African-Americans who were offended – even though it is etymologically un-related to the word “nigger”. Dead Nigger Creek in central Texas was changed to Dead Negro Creek, and although they might have slightly missed the point with that revision, it is part of a movement in the US to completely obliterate the word…”

Jon Price, Woof Justice. New Zealand Listener. Oct. 2006.