Does it matter to you? Do you find both offensive/acceptible? Does one bear more weight than the other? Should "white" people be able to say "nigga?" Do you judge people differently by the way they pronounce the n-word? Do you use either/both? Is that nigger, in fact, crazy?

I'm so secure in the fact that I'm not racist that I'll happily say the word nigger, just like I'll say honky. All in jest. Maybe someone will come and smear shit in my face for saying this and tell me how wrong I am but whatever.

As with any word, it depends on the context it's being used in.

I grew up saying Nigga and nigro. It has for some long time now seemed silly to say anything like that unless I am talking to one of my white friends from East Texas (they don't know what to say to that shit, so i am amused). In truth, that is silly, as well.

I would vote 'don't care' but it's not an option.

I am part black.

The word and all its derivatives are horrible. Consider its origins and you'll understand why it should be offensive to everyone. Jesus, I'm white and Scottish and even I know that.

Here's the NAACP's statement of intent on the N-word funeral.

http://www.naacp.org/events/convention/ ... /index.htm

I'm going to side with "Non-black shouldn't use either unless one is quoting a rap lyric where leaving it out would make one look like an absolute fucking tool.* The crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube is not from the gang called ... wit Attitude."

*Singing along with "Golddigger" makes you look like an absolute fucking tool regardless of the inclusion of the word.

non-black people shouldn't use either (nor should they use stupid shit like "nucca"). they are totally different though. nigger is always derogatory, nigga is almost like "dude" or "man". one thing i've also noticed that i don't hear people mention is how both seem to almost entirely only be used to address men. black women are degraded as "bitches" or "hos", not as "niggers" -- this definitely says something about the nature of sexism and racism.

i only use either one when quoting. when i've quoted "nigga" blacks have given me the evil eye, like this one time i was telling a story about a how a white girl called me nigga and this black guy looked at me like i'm scum. i guess these things are easy to misinterpret. i think non-black people shouldn't use either word, but it seems silly to censor quotations -- it's not like i normally do that when i'm quoting someone saying something else offensive.

Trilo makes a good point about the gender thing, although I don't know if every black man that says nigger is automatically going to refer to a black woman as a bitch- at least no more than re: a white woman. The word definitely has a masculine connotation though.

The thing with the pronunciation though, is that "nigga is the way "er" sounds when said by some blacks. As far as I know there was never a conscious movement to change the spelling to reflect a different attitude. It's just a more phonetical spelling of a dialectic as well as a general way of tricking words out (k's for c's, z's for s's, etc). So it's essentially the same word: nigga is just in the style of a stereotypical black's vernacular. In a way, it could be considered more racist than "nigger," because it's assuming that all blacks drawl or slur their words. Another heavy point that people forget is, plenty of African-Americans say it with the hard R! Just not so many of them rap, except for Del Tha Funkee Homosapien aka Deltron 3030- his r's are hard. Shit is confusing.