Bill Maher 6/9/17

[Brian37]

My main objection is that the word is offensive(which it is) but it's ok to use if you're black.
Well no, it isn't.
Nigger quite simply has no other context, it only exists as an insult mean't to put black people in their place, at least in the minds of white supremacists.
And when I hear black rap music that uses the word prolifically (and I get to hear a lot) I have a hard time agreeing with the people that complain that the word is sooooo offensive...... unless they use it.

How many times have you heard one atheist call another atheist a "heathen" or "baby eater", and how many other times have you heard a far right bigot not even say those same things but just say "atheist" and treat equate us to dictators like Hitler and Stalin and Po Pot. 

I agree "nigger" has a very horrible past as a usage, but just like others use the word "atheist" between us and we aren't using it as a slur, far right bigots do see "atheist" evil. 

It still amounts to there is a difference in context. I don'think it is right to judge blacks who do use it but certainly anyone can fight any bigoted usage of it.  Many blacks don't use it too, so again it depends on the individual, but I think any use of any pejorative not just that word and not just blacks, but any pejorative, can and often has been used by the target as a coping mechanism, not to uphold the bigots, but to flip the word.

"Gay" started out as meaning "happy"
Then it became a slur against homosexuals.
Today gays still call themselves gay despite the long term use as a slur.

So it is really not up to the outsider, or the supporter of that minority. 

It is also why I don't like some atheists avoiding calling themselves atheists, some are so afraid of the stigma of "atheist" some replace it with Humanist, or Freethinker or Bright. 

I don't make those equations to say the histories are the same between blacks and gays and atheists, but we are all minorities and as such there are times we can and do say things between us that we get and understand.