I'm going to assume that every white person has said "nigga" at least once in their life. Respect to those who haven't—even when singing along to rap music by themselves—but it seems like they account for an extremely small percentage of the population. I don't know how to feel about this. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to respond to that word anymore. My gut tells me that I should be offended every time a non-black person uses it, but as much as I hate to say it, I'm not. That's not some Uncle Tom shit either. It's just a waste of time to be up in arms over a single word every other day. I don't give a fuck if Justin Bieber said "nigga" in a joke when he was 15. It happens. Welcome to planet Earth.
Obviously, whites who use the word with malicious intent are liable to get cursed out or
hit in the face, but those people would probably say "nigger" before they said "nigga" and they're not who I'm talking about anyway. Fact is, there is a difference between both words and only with the latter are lines blurred on the acceptableness of use by non-blacks. Yeah, it'd be great if no white person ever said "nigga," but that's unrealistic, and part of the blame falls to black people. We made the word cool. We use it incessantly in the most popular music. We took away its racist connotations so effectively that it's gotten to the point where some white people call each other "nigga" as a term of endearment.
It's all about context. Despite the fact that I was okay with, like, 15,000 white people yelling "nigga" around me at a concert, it was only a few months before that I punched a white boy in his mouth for doing the same thing at a party. This kid kept trying to get my attention in what appeared to be a benign manner. I'd be at the keg and he'd come up to me like, "Ernest, when you get a second, I have a question to ask you." Finally, he goes, "Don't get offended, serious question, I'm only curious. What's the difference between a 'nigga' and a 'nigger'?" He was being a smartass and, not even seconds later, regretted asking me that question.
I'm sometimes left with a feeling of regret if I let a white person say "nigga" in front of me and don't check them. I'll say, "Don't say that shit around me," 95% of the time and it used to be that other 5% when I didn't speak up would haunt me. But lately, more and more, I'm beginning to feel like it doesn't matter. I guess enough rap concerts will do that to you.
I try not to be egregious with my own use of the word—black people who call all of their white friends "nigga" are the corniest motherfuckers in the world—and, honestly, the same goes for calling other black people "nigga" all of the time like it's some kind of superpower. Of course I'm glad that I don’t have to edit myself when rap music is playing and sometimes there's nothing more profound than being able to tell a homie, "You're a real nigga," but I'll never go out of my way to make white people feel like "nigga" is a word that's totally acceptable.