But it gets a bit silly when a random group of people, a very small socially marginalized one, can co-opt any random word for a stupid reason and then we all have to tip-toe around it because we might accidentally offend somebody who wears their "offend me" button on the outside.
Check out http://www.reference.com/browse/List_of_ethnic_slurs_by_ethn... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_racial_slurs
It's amazing the length of the list of words that have been historically used as ethnic slurs. If I had to keep a mental rolodex of these words around, I'd probably never be able to talk about pretty much anything. According to the list above, even some cherished dances from part of my cultural heritage are now considered racial epithets as is the first name of President Lincoln!
The reason newspapers and the like try and avoid these words has nothing to do with their usage by racist assholes. If that were the case, all you had to do force newspapers into all kinds of pretzels would be to just start using random verbiage as slurs. The reason they avoid those words is that people get offended by being called those random things. Offended readers can be vocal readers and vocal readers can cause trouble.
If "salad" suddenly started being used as a racial epithet for African-Americans tomorrow by the KKK, would newspapers the world over have to stop using it? That's silliness and that's the point we're collectively trying to make.
BTW http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=niggle&search... the etymology of "niggle" comes from the Norwegian "nigla" - "to be busy with trifles". Urban dictionary is probably the best place to go if all you're trying to be offended by a word.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=salad at least half a dozen uses of the term with a sexual connotation. I can just see my Mother the next time we go to the Country Kitchen Buffet. "'Salad' Bar?! Cover the children's eyes and ears, we're outa this place!!!!"