Originally Posted by
Croesy Blue
Because of the connotations and context of the use of the word, it has been reclaimed by black people and has a different meaning in that sense, unfortunatley it is still a slur and comes across that way when used by anyone else. There are thousands of articles that cover it a lot more succinctly than I ever could.
It's the same reason south park can get away with anti semitic characters wihtout getting grief. It isn't just the N word there are loads of examples of groups taking slurs and reclaiming them, it doesn't mean they stop being slurs when used by others though.