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Nigger is an interesting word.
Until the last generation, it was used throughout the British Empire to mean "anyone not Caucasian". It was for people of sub-Saharan African descent, Arabs, Mongols, Chinese, etc etc.
In more recent times it has come to mean only "black" people with some degree of sub-Saharan descent.
The perceived objectionability of the word nigger (when used by anyone other than one black person to another) has risen dramatically even in my lifetime - in the 1970's it was a bad word, undoubtedly, but not the nuclear option it is now. Saying nigger was like saying "hell" or "shit" these days - you'd get slammed, but you wouldn't be pilloried as you might today.
I don't know why - maybe it's a "tide in the affairs of man".
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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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