It is perfectly okay for them to call each other the N word. Use it in their music etc ect. But let someone else do the same and it is a capital offense!
My grandmother in Atlanta, back in the 50s, always refereed to them as “nigra”, and with no disrespect intended.
Growing up in Memphis back in the 50s, the signs referenced them as “colored”. Our yard keeper was a colored man.
Our maid was a colored woman.