My grandparents said colored.
The n word was a spanking offense at my house and theirs as well. Never got spanked for it though. Heard someone use it and asked my grandmother about it. Was informed it was hateful and a fighting word. And that only ‘low class white trash’ used it.
Funnily enough my own kids picked up the n word from their pediatricians office waiting room. One black chick walked in, saw a friend of hers with a new baby and commented ‘that is the fattest little ‘n’ baby i’ve ever seen!’. Of course my kids did the ‘new word’ thing and used it constantly for a few weeks. My youngest became the ‘fattest little ‘n’ baby’ for the older two. *sigh*
We ignored it and it went away. Just what I needed though. Walk through the wal mart parking lot in Hazlehurst and have my kids yell a fighting word at each other within earshot of the perpetually aggrieved.
My grandmother from the “old country” used the N word.
As in “That nice nigger girl from across the street came over with some fresh baked bread and I made coffee and we had a lovely time together.” (Of course the woman was in her fifties I suppose! But to my 90+ year old GM still a “girl”). While I knew that her choice of words (both of them!) was inappropriate, it was far from me as a child to correct her on it!