Black activists in America recently held a mock funeral, complete with wooden coffin, to mark the demise of the hated racist slur known as the “N-word”. Now they have begun campaigning to purge the much-used “B-word” from the language.

New York City Council, which declared a moratorium on the word “nigger” in March, is now debating a similar symbolic ban on the word “bitch”. “Some young ladies have no self-esteem. If you call some of them that, that means a lifetime of hurt – the same way as if you say the ‘N-word’ to someone,” said Darlene Mealy, the Brooklyn councilwoman behind the proposal.

The battle over insults is part of a wider culture war sparked by the spread of hip-hop music, with its obscenity laced lyrics.

Black rappers such as Snoop Dogg and Missy Elliott have long referred to women in their songs as “bitches” and “’ho’s” — a corruption of “whore”.

But the epithet has been embraced by white artists such as the singer-songwriter Meredith Brooks, who proclaimed in a 1997 hit: “I’m a bitch.” Black celebrities from the TV talkshow host Oprah Winfrey to hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons have criticised the now-commonplace use of such sexist terms.

The movement gathered steam when the white talkshow host Don Imus referred to Rutger’s Unversity’s predominantly black women’s basket-ball team as “nappy-headed ’ho’s” in April, costing him his job.

This week, the Rev Al Sharpton, the flamboyant black activist who ran for President in 2004, staged rallies across the United States urging public divestment from the music industry until rappers stop using the word “nigga”, “bitch” or “’ho”.

“The opposition has tried to use the argument of free speech, but they don’t have the freedom to use peoples’ pension funds against their own will and interest,” Mr Sharpton said.

Cultural sophisticates argue that words such as “queer” and “nigga” have been reclaimed by the very people who were once the targets of them. And some subcultures, particularly in the gay community, have already taken the sting out of “bitch” by using it as a term of endearment when referring to friends.

Andy Zeisler, who co-founded a feminist magazine called Bitch a decade ago, called New York’s proposed ban “problematic”. “If the issue is one of the impact on women, there are many more things the city council could do,” she said. “If you are going to put a symbolic ban on the word ’bitch’, why would you not put a symbolic ban on men catcalling women on the street?”

Ms Mealy insists that the “N-word” ban is already having an effect. “I am around a lot of children. They are about to say the N-word. Then they say, ‘No, you’ve got to say ‘My brother’ or ‘My sister’ instead.”

Twenty of the fifty-one New York city council members have signed her resolution. However even some council members admit using the B-word about their wives.

Rappers themselves are unimpressed with the plan.

“People tend to forget it’s entertainment and no different than someone going to a movie theatre for two-and-a-half hours watching rape, domestic and gun violence, and girls being called bitches and ho’s,” the female rapper Remy Ma told Billboard magazine. If you don’t like it, change the station or don’t buy the CD.”

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