[scarmig]

Including it would distract from the main point (though IIRC there was no point at which it wasn't a slur; replacing non-slurs with novel non-slurs is a different category).

That said, I think it supports my point. How effective has tabooing that slur been at eliminating racism in the USA?

[QuercusMax]

I'm the furthest thing from N-word apologist, but it's pronounced the same as the Latin word meaning "black" (modulo vowel pronunciation shifts), and spelled nearly the same. It's clearly derived from a word which did not originally have any meaning as a slur, and I bet you could find early usages in English which were merely descriptive.

There's no reason to use it now, but understanding the fact that was originally a descriptive word is useful for the history of it.

[jimbokun]

There have been a few kerfuffles in soccer where a Spanish speaking person used the Spanish word for black person in an English speaking country…and were charged with making a racial slur.

[projektfu]

Moreno is the most common word I've heard in the US by black Spanish speakers describing themselves. Is negro more common in Spain?

[majormajor]

Why does a taboo have to "eliminate racism" to be considered useful or effective instead of just "reduce the amount of times people have to put up with hearing others call them that"?

[scarmig]

Do you have an estimate for how much tabooing that word decreased the racial wealth gap or increased the number of black children with access to healthcare?