The book 'Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word', by Randall Kennedy, can answer your questions.
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Name : ED25440, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Age : 46, City : Kansas City, State : MO Country : United States, I really dont know how it came to be, but dont get the word 'nigger' and 'nigga confused. The diff. is the er and a. Most black peepz get offensive because they say nigga with out hinking about it, it'z just a everyday slang. But some of the peepz in other races may say it to get peoplez reaction, and try to be funny and that'z when prob. start. But i have a white friend whom i have heard say nigga before, and i didnt care. But if it'z not something u would say in a everyday bases, dont use it.
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Name : JAY31308, Gender : M, Age : 16, City : Columbia, State : NC Country : United States, Please check out this web site it will answer all your questions rather then i can in this limited space.http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/caricature/
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Name : Lisa Martinez, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Age : 27, City : Tacoma, State : WA Country : United States, Occupation : Mother, Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, The word nigger orginated from the latin word niger, meaning black. It was first cited in a dictionary in the 1700's. The reason the word was offensive is the same reason words such as bitch, kike, and others are offensive. It is not only calling a person out of his name, but it is a way of expressing superiority over a person or group of people. The reason the word is even more offensive now is because it now reminds black people of a time full of hatred, murder, rape, and other violent acts. We as African Americans today have tried to adopt the word in order to taint its offensiveness. Tupac Shakur adapted the word as an acronym in his album Strictly for My Niggaz. NIGGA; Never Ignorant, Getting Goals Accomplished. It's the same way that many women have adopted the word bitch, but a man should dare not call a woman a bitch.
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Name : W. Williams III, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Baptist, Age : 21, City : Slidell, State : LA Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, Pleas know that there is a difference b/t nigger and nigga. Blacks changed the meaning and accepted the fact that we went through what we did and now we can coin the term to mean something merely as 'friend' 'brother' 'companion' just the same as hispanics say 'homz' and whites say 'bro' just because the termed nigga coined from nigger people frown upon it like its a bad thing. I say nigga all the time to my friends and family. it is in no shape or form considered disrespectful or hurtful to me or anyone i use it to. It is just simply a slang term that a certain ethnicity uses. Nothing more.
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Name : 1EducatedBlackQueen, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : half italian half black, Age : 19, City : St.Louis, State : MO Country : United States, Occupation : full time college student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, I wonder the same. I dont quite understand the word being used so loosely in refering to a friend or an aquaintence. It does not make sense.
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Name : Summer, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 23, City : Hollywood, State : MD Country : United States, Occupation : Administrative, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, Me being African American, I understand why some people use the word so freely and it's because they are using the n-i-g-g-a not the n-i-g-g-e-r and the e-r is known to be coming from the white race using it in a negative way,but African-American people use it in a positive way as such to say a black man may tell another black man 'Wussup my nigga' and thats positive because that is how they greet each other.
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Name : Chelsey, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, From what we are taught by our parents, nigger was used to make black people feel inferior to whites. I think the reason we use this word freely is because we are making something good out of a bad thing. I admit that I use nigger but I pronounce it 'nigga.' I just see it as a word of affection like 'that's my dawg' and 'that's my nigga.' I don't think we see it as a degrading word now because we aren't back in those highly racial days. I see it as a way of beating someone at their own game.
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Name : Monica C., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Pentecostal, Age : 17, City : Prosperity, State : SC Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : Less than High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, I'm 17 year old and a junior in high school and everyday I either hear or use the word 'nigga'. I think that we have changed the word from a negative to a positive. Instead of letting people (white) say it to us we have made it into a term of endearment. It's like saying what's up dog or friend. I mostly only hear blacks say it to other blacks but sometimes there are a few 'chosen' white people who say it and hispancs use nigga just as freely as blacks do.
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Name : Crystal, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Baptist, Age : 17, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : Less than High School Diploma, Social class : Upper middle class, hey chris, Its not that the word itself has evolved, its that we as a group have evolved. Our ignorance and misunderstanding of the word has left it as a hackneyed expression giving other races the idea that it's ok to uses in everyday language. I personally despise the word and if u did'nt notice i can't even type it. BAck during the 400 years of african-americans being treated like posessions, it was used to degrade us below human level and intelligence. It was a word that the white people used to as the insult of all insults. It made us feel like pawned objects (which is what they treated us as) instead of human beings that don't deserve to be treated like cattle just because we were a different color skin. On the inside everyone is born the same, we all have blood, but the difference is the way we bleed.
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Name : tommy-m, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : African Methodist Episcopalian, Age : 15, City : melbourne, State : FL Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : Less than High School Diploma, because niggers these days dont study history these days
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Name : white, City : white, State : IL Country : United States, A lot of people of the younger generation do not understand the background behind the word or often put it in the back of their minds. It is used to express love,friendship and usually brotherhood or sisterhood,as well as an understanding of 'living while black.' A phrase such as 'that's my nigga' would likely mean that is my very good friend, and we have been through a lot together. Most young blacks continually attempt to reiterate the difference between 'nigger', and 'nigga.' Placing major emphasis in the 'r' in the term is likely to be a racist term,while not placing emphasis sounds more natural and urban.
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Name : K-Koffie-Lart, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Baptist, Age : 19, City : Silver Spring, State : MD Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, The word nigger would never evolve or change in any way. The N-word used freely by young African Americans today is actually spelled and pronounced differently then the word used to precipate hate. The word used by blacks is nigga not nigger. They should not be confused with each other. It is similar to words like weak and week. They have two different meanings. Nigga is a word of empowerment. It was created to take the power away from the word nigger and is used to recognize a comradary amoug African Americans reflecting a common struggle. This is why only black people can used the word. The major concern should be why this issue is dividing the black community. Is there a misunderstanding or an unwillingness to understand?
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Name : Mark-Jones22050, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Age : 22, City : Joliet, State : IL Country : United States, The word nigger was implemented during slavery in the United States deriving from the word Negro meaning 'black' which is more widely used around the world than 'nigger.” The term Nigger is utilized predominantly in the United States to downgrade African-Americans as last class citizens. To the point, 'Nigga' not 'Nigger' is used among African-Americans. The word Nigga was used in the early 1900 by blacks towards person that have done good things as a means of overcoming the 'Nigger Bridge.' One can say a method of getting ahead. Today, Nigga is used as an expression that can mean many things, example: My Nigga, meaning my friend, in a slangish term.
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Name : Abdul-Karriem, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Age : 30, City : San Diego, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Educator, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, Nigger is a pejorative term used to refer to dark-skinned people, particularly those of African origin. It is derived from the Latin word Niger, meaning 'black', in particular from a dialect variant of the Latin-derived word Negro, the Spanish for 'black'. It was commonly used in the United States and United Kingdom as recently as the 1960s. In the United States, the more neutral descriptive term African-American is currently preferred in public discourse, in the pattern of Native American, Italian-American, Asian-American and others. Acceptable words vary from country to country and, ultimately, from individual to individual. It is worth noting that the word has to some extent been reclaimed by black people in recent years, particularly in America. Some young African-Americans, in particular, use the word to one another without any derogatory implication. In 1988 the album Straight Outta Compton was released by the rap group Niggaz With Attitude -- despite their own use of the word nigger (sanitized via spelling) the group's name was often glossed as NWA, perhaps reflecting the extreme discomfort that still surrounds any use of the word. Other African Americans, however, consider the term offensive in all contexts and do not agree that it is ever appropriate to use it. As an illustration of the process by some of reclaiming the word, in 1967, Muhammad Ali had explained his refusal to be drafted to serve in the Vietnam War by saying, 'I got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me nigger.' Comedian and activist Dick Gregory used the word as the title of his best-selling autobiography in 1964. It should be reiterated that the word is considered extremely offensive other than in the very specific context described above, and is rarely heard outside that context. Indeed, even the sound of the word is offensive to some. Careful speakers often refuse to use niggardly or snigger, even though these terms do not refer either to black people or to characteristics or behavior attributed to black people. Nor do they have any etymological connection to the word nigger. A bureaucrat in the city government of Washington, D.C. was briefly driven from his job in the late 1990s when he was overheard referring in a private conversation to 'a niggardly budget', meaning only that it was insufficient and cheap.
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Name : 1EducatedBlackQueen, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : half italian half black, Age : 19, City : St.Louis, State : MO Country : United States, Occupation : full time college student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 
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