I don’t really get this. What is the functional distinction between this and banning the word as hate speech? If someone uses the word, they are sanctioned by the mods.
We cannot pretend it’s not banned, wait for people to use it then say “aha, gotcha”.
The notion that it should be allowed in order for nasty people to “show us who they are” only makes sense as an argument for allowing continued usage without sanction. If we ban the word, anyone will still obviously have the option of showing us who they are by using the word once (well, a couple of times, nobody is advocating instaban here).