Personally, while I think the N-word is offensive to certain portions of our society, it's still only a word, and I was taught by my parents early on," sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you." Perhaps because of that my skin is thicker than some, but language usage has never gotten me mad, it's usually the associated attacks that follow the verbage that has repercussions! People no longer, in this day of PC thinking to simply ignore and not answer stupid verbal abuse.
It should also be noted that during the fur=trade era in the west, The N-word was used by the trappers and traders,( both black and white) to refer to themselves, and usually not in a derogatory way. As I see it , and this is only my opinion, the farther that our society advances, the farther behind we fall.