Truth be told, I've had it ground into me early on that the word is terrible. It is one of the few words I do not feel comfortable saying even if it's a discussion about how bad it is.
Seeing people who use it non-ironically tends to fill me with a lot of anger. (That being said, I could stand to be less sensitive about it)
I will say, however, that if you shy away from using it in, say, historical fiction or modern fiction or such, then that's going too far the other direction. Whitewashing history for the sake of political correctness means that you make the actual offense of the word meaningless. In a story, it makes sense for a racist to use that word when they would use it in real life.
Gratuitous, over the top use, however, is just plain bad taste.