Names can designate individuals or entities. They can also refer to names used in a derogatory sense, such as in schoolyard use of name-calling.

An instance of the latter, not confined to schoolyards, has stoked any number of protests of late because it is associated with slavery, bigotry, jim crow laws, and other negatives in America's social history.

The word, of course, is nigger which Dictionary.com says, "is now probably the most offensive word in English. Its degree of offensiveness has increased markedly in recent years,..."

On its face, the term is indeed vile and has been labelled so offensive that the media dare not even use it in print or otherwise, resorting to references to "the N-word," instead.

I can readily understand the offense taken at the word. I can't understand efforts to ban it from the English language simply because nigger is no more defamatory than dozens of other words in the language.

Efforts to strike it from the English lexicon are foolish, in that no one, not even governments, can forbid use of a word and any attempts to do so would be as fruitless as was outlawing booze under the Eighteenth Amendment.

Worse, officially prohibiting use of a word would open up a very large can of very wormy problems.

For example, would we then be forced to expurgate the over 200 uses of "nigger" in Twain's American classic, Huckleberry Finn and in countless other literary works, or do we toss Huck and any other novel that uses the word into a massive book-burning pyre?

Then, too, should nigger be consigned to the scrapheap, America's schools and media would-and should-be inundated with demands from any number of ethnic and racial groups demanding that derogatory terms they consider offensive be banned and expurgated.

. White Americans might object to crackers and honkies.

. Italo-Americans might take up arms against wop and guinea;

. Irish-Americans might protest mick and paddy;

. Jewish-Americans might demand the abolition of kike and hebe;

. Catholic-Americans might take objection to papists and Jew-haters;

. Native Americans might demand the end of Injun and scalpers;

. Muslim-Americans might insist on the abolition of camel-jockey and towel-head;

. Vietnamese-Americans might want gooks and slants abolished;

. Chinese Americans might campaign against the usage of chinks and chinamen.

The obvious point is that despite the irrational protests and demands by America's Black community to ban the word nigger from usage in America, or elsewhere, that effort is nothing more than a vain attempt to alter White thinking.

Words are just words.

A much better but more challenging approach would be to try to alter the reasons why some Americans still consider African-Americans as niggers.

Sticks and stones may hurt your bones but names can never harm you-unless you let them.