My family has family friends in Mexico who are of white Spanish heritage. The youngest daughter when born had dark skin and the family called her "negra" as a nickname. I always thought this strange and was uncomfortable when I heard her called this. However, the family (and she) thought it was funny. Fortunately, she has outgrown the name.

I wrote an article on "the word" some time ago and welcome comments. https://medium.com/my-unpopular-opinion/i-spoke-the-n-word-and-my-family-is-peeved-at-me-c18b6326206d