Don't let em get to ya!
Where I live the word "nigga" just means punk, some of my black friends use it as a greeting (though they are kind of hypocrites because if I said it they would be pissed), it isn't really associated only with black people only anymore, could mean you are any color.
If you believe that the word nigger is a powerful word then you are empowering the people who use it in a negative sense. Think of all the great black people of the last centuary- Rosa Parks, MLK, Queen Latifa, Montel Williams, Richard Prior, they rose above it. They are shining examples of black people. I will smoke a j in their honor. you should too.