It is a word, just a word. In fact, it is the southern pronunciation of “Negro.” After all the hoorah of the 60s much of the Southland forced its mouths into the uncomfortable configuration that produces KNEE-GROW and then, of course that pronunciation dropped from favor and we got a whole series of euphemisms that succeeded each other until now when Black or Afro is acceptable to some and anathema to others and faintly insulting to all. The problem is the perceive attitude toward the named population. The name will always attain a level of odium, not because of the word itself but because of the attitude of the users. Therefore the name used will always become an insult as if the word is the problem, not the relationship. If the black establishment had insisted on and gained the use of the term Men and Women to designate Negroes then that term would itself become uncomfortable to use and an insult.
Are you sure? I know it was used freely among the Brits. One of Ian Fleming’s Bond stories had a chapter entitled “Nigger Heaven.”
The chapter was retitled in the American edition.