I’ve had the same experience. Where fair fights are encouraged and where merit (athleticism) is king, when black Americans use “nigger” then the usage is opened up to whites or anybody and nobody pays attention. The key is that blacks use it first and out loud, in the locker room.
So the word should be abandoned by everybody, right?
I am totally down with nobody using it.
What do you mean? That none blacks do not use it around each other?
I feel likes the rules of what is offensive is weird and changes for no reason. It’s now offensive to say oriental. But you see Chinese people open restaurants like oriental cafe all the time. I don’t even understand why oriental would be offensive, it would just seem like a odd and old persons useage of the word.
Gonna have to back up (a bit) here.
Andrew has it about right. The most common usage is “nigga” not nigger. Neither is allowed by other Americans unless they’re willing to forfeit their reputation.
Andrew is also more accurate about public vs private usage of either.
“Nigga” is far more common than “nigger,” by any “race” in the US, especially by African Americans. Both words are verboten-unless-you’re-black, and the usage of either is more common in private than in public.
Still, I’ve heard both many, many times and both were used almost exclusively by black Americans.
Non-blacks use the term all the time, and in public, and around black folks. Ever been to a baseball game in Boston, or a football game in Boston, or to Boston?
I live in France in a very white left-wing region (Nouvelle Aquitaine). It is predominantly white and the term Nigga is used by the whites here as a greeting to each other (even in office environments). I never use it and have warned them never to use it in Anglo or mixed environments, as it is strictly verboten.
That’s strange. Are they using it because they think Americans use it?
No, they think it is street cool. But considering Bordeaux was built on the slave trade (not just wine), I think it is pretty insensitive. But with my aggressive North American personality, the Gallic folk don`t listen on this piece of advice. 
Do they say it with a French accent?
I can’t get this image out of my head of a bunch of French businesspeople in suits walking into meetings saying “Yo, my nigga!”. Only now it’s even worse because they’re saying it in a French accent.
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And grown adults too… this is new to me.
It is definitely the under 40 demographic and outside of Paris.
Not think, Americans DO use it. Also, immigrant kids immediately pick it up and use it, towards one another, Black kids and apparently, to white guys in the gym who try and call them out for being Muslim. The word means nothing to them, more like asshole I imagine, but the homespun connotations run deep. It’s interesting, as the kids from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Central Africa seem to get a pass from the Black kids when the realize those kids back shit up with their fists.
Only on CNN are there dainty white glove conversations about “the N-word.” On Cable TV, Netflix, in the movies, in music, comic books, amateur and professional sports, and in literature, that word is used in both the -er and -gga forms. It is ubiquitous.
Americans are not using it in the office, at least they would be aware of the company they keep. I find that grown adults using it in the office to be…weird. Especially with a French accent.
CEOs are using it during conference calls.
People I know in London from Nigeria or Camaroon or Ghana, mostly western Africa used to ask me to explain why Americans used this word. I would say “it’s an American thing” and everyone would laugh.
Not saying you’re lying. Just wondering where you’re getting this from.
Papa John.
But yeah, my bad. He was the Founder, not the CEO. The interesting thing was he says yeah, I used it, but it wasn’t a slur.
Ok but that’s not him greeting his board members with what’s up my niggas. He was quoting KFC or something.
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