https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-54107329
(professor suspended for saying a Chinese word mistaken for the epithet, in context that clearly identified what he was saying, on video)
It's even more ironic: he was teaching a class on international communication, and used it as an example of how you shouldn't jump to judgment of people from other cultures/languages. Cue his students doing just that.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word...
I mean, perhaps it was used in the past in a straightforward manner, but using that word today almost sounds a bit like the equivalent of "Look I'm not saying the N-word but haha it sounds exactly like the N-word so I can get away with it wink wink." It's like the "I'm not touching you!" game that 7 year old siblings play.
Start from any perfectly neutral expression X, and if people insist enough that it should not be used because it's offensive, then using it becomes a statement- either of indifference for the supposed offense or of active participation in it. The only way to use that expression innocently is to be completely unaware of the controversy around it- otherwise the expression has become tainted whatever your intention in using it.