Word Magic

You can call a Golden Retriever dog a Golden Retriever, to distinguish it from other kinds of dogs.
You can call a Persian cat a Persian, and you can call a Friesian horse a Friesian.

But you cannot call a negro a negro, to describe his genetic characteristics.

Any word will catch negative connotations, if negative emotions are assigned to the concept itself. Banning words communicates the emotions of the banners, not necessarily of the potential users of the words.

Fear of Racism

A witness in Finland may tell that the offender had dark eyes and dark hair. But they may not tell that the offender had dark skin.

Thus the police will be seeking for dark eyed, dark haired, fair skinned people, none of whom will be the offender.

This is not considered to be withholding crucial evidence. It is considered politically correct conduct. Anything else would be racism.

The Satanic Bar Code

In Russia, in the village of Bogolyubovo (God loving) some one hundred people are refusing to change their old passports to new ones, as there are bar codes on the new ones.

They believe the passports to be sinful: The bar codes are supposed to carry three sixes hidden in them - the Number of the Beast.