hey in the 1500's, you could be burned at the stake for calling someone a "fool" nowadays, we dont even use that word. The people perpetuating slavery saying "nigger" and actually meaning, they knew of the power of that racist insult. However, the word nigger has devolved nowadays to the point where I see geeky white people calling eachother nigger. If they were to do that three hundred years ago, they'd probably be killed. I'm just saying all swear words lose they're abilities to affect us. Nowadays, (and by nowadays i mean about 8 years ago on Oprah) A Klu Klux Klan member said there were niggers and black people. Oprah was horribly offended. he said it was okay, cause she wasn't a nigger. And when the whites took over, she wouldn't be killed. Like Halo said, all swear words depend on the context. If someone casually uses nigger, theres nothing wrong with it. If they mean it with racist hate, well, hell, i'll punch em a few times. there's no reason to hate people based on how they look.
Most people, listening to me, wouldn't believe this because i'm whiter than sour cream. but thats my opinion on the subject. And yes, i pretty much said what other people said in a condensed form. And i managed to call myself white.