well, i know u've prolly heard this a million times but.... tha word nigga has two different meanings... there's niggER and niggA... if a white person says niggA, (most of the time) they honestly dont mean any harm by it... i mean, if ur friend calls u an idiot, and they're just playin wit u, u know they dont mean any harm... so why get mad? the same logic can be applied to the use of nigger/a. it depends on how the word is used, yao ming?
now if a white person, or anybody rather (even black) calls me a niggER, i'd get offended. niggER is never used to refer to your friends...