Alright, I see a lot of misconceptions in this thread.
I've seen a lot of arguments citing the fact that "black people" use the term "nigger/a", and that legitimatizes the use of the pejorative by others, particularly "white" people. Now let me help you out with this. There are a lot of theories as to why "black" people use the term "nigger/a" to refer to each other, but frankly, I believe they're all conjecture. The fact is that, after being referred to as something for long enough, it'll become a force of habit. This is similar in terms of "black" and "African-American"--us dark-skinned Americans of various origins are neither African nor black. Those that are considered black are simply a darker hue of the same brown that every human being is. The only variations that we have can be attributed to health, nutrition, and translucency of the skin giving it a pink hue as blood near the surface shows through. Granted, you don't see Asians calling each other "chink", but they already have a standardized way of referring to one another in their own language, and anyway, White people don't have a standardized way of referring to them. Although the terms "chink" and "chinaman" has been used from time to time, their history in this country is much, much shorter and their treatment, far different. The same goes for every other demographic that our humble "white" people has concocted some asinine, childish nickname for. Aside Mexican and Latino people, who I have heard refer to each other as both "nigger/a" and "beaner" from time to time. And as for you being "white"... no, you're Europeans or Americans of Colonial European/European immigrant descent. You're not "white". You're anywhere between pink and beige, and some of you are as brown as those you have these stupid little names for.
The term "nigger" is a racist term because it is a pejorative referring to someone's "race", but that's only within the scope of the "race" fallacy. The fact is that "nigger" is a culturally abusive term because it references the fact that "black" people were once slaves, as that was the most popular term to refer to them as when they were. What people need to understand is that this entire societal construct is based around ownership, whether it be of capital, land, or culture. Hence, as it was European colonialists who "acquired" this territory and introduced it into Western World society, compounding it's power and influence and resulting in the the sort of global society that we currently have (with the scales weighed in the places that they are), who determine who is and isn't a part of this society, who's to be accepted, who's to be harrassed, and who's to be ignored. The way things are right now are incidental. We are just a brief moment in a massive, incomprehensible sea of time, and during this period, it just so happens that those in the Western part of the world have the strongest empires and the most influence. It hasn't always been this way, and it won't always be. Eventually, though, those with so little resources had to figure out a way to survive, and naturally it was through exploitation (and the acquisition of a massive, richly resourceful territory like the United States).
So, really. Give me a break.