David Howard, formerly the head of the District’s Office of Public Advocate, was talking to two of his closest aides Jan. 15 about the lack of money available in his office’s budget. He said, “I will have to be niggardly with this fund because it’s not going to be a lot of money.” Last week, after apologizing to anyone who might have been offended by the word “niggardly,” Howard stepped down. The word’s actual definition has nothing to do with race. But that hasn’t stopped people’s ignorance of the English language from ending Howard’s public service career.

Niggardly means stingy or miserly. It has been traced to the 1300s and Middle English. But people who didn’t take enough time to look up the word in a dictionary were immediately accusing Howard of racism. A day or so after the incident, the rumor mill was abuzz that Howard supposedly had used the N-word in a complaint about all the people calling his office with complaints. The racism of rumormongers was evident in the ensuing variations of the white public official’s alleged statements.

The offense that people took to Howard’s comments has led some to argue that all words that merely sound racist – regardless of their actual definition – should be avoided. This dumbing down of language to lowest-denominator terms is ridiculous. Are people supposed to avoid using phrases such as “chink in the armor” or a “nip in the air”? Is “rule of thumb” just another misogynist statement? Will “spic and span” be boycotted?

Howard apologized for people’s uninformed misinterpretation of a word he used correctly. He was forced out of his job. It is a shame that someone who entered public service to change things for the better was chased out over an innocent misunderstanding.