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[Jonathon Green]

> On hip-hop related slang, I'm wondering when the first non-racial use
> of "nigga" can be found and relatedly it's acceptability by whites.
> The first time I heard it was in 1991 on a subway from an interracial
> group of kids from Bronx Science High School (a notoriously nerdy
> place as it's name makes clear, and Safire's alma mater to boot).
> Now, the kids I talk to separate it from the "r" form, which
> maintains it's racial/racist implications. A similar distinction can
> be found in some of Geneva Smitherman's mid 1990s work, but for her
> informants even "nigga" couldn't be used by whites.

While the hip-hop 'nigga' makes for an easily identifiable alternative to
'nigger', and is generally seen as a positive black-on-black use, rather
than the pejorative 'nigger', 'nigger', irrespective of spelling, has been
used in a positive manner long before 1991.

I offer some cites:

1926 Van Vechten _Nigger Heaven_ 26: Sometimes I hate Niggers. (footnote)
While this informal epithet [i.e. Nigger] is freely used by Negroes among
themselves, not only as a term of opprobrium, but also actually as a term of
endearment, its employment by a white person is always fiercely resented.
The word Negress is foridden under all circumstances.

1931 Nathan Van Patten 'The Vocabulary of the American Negro' in _American
Speech_ Vol VII :1 29/30 _nigger_ Used affectionately among Negroes

1979 'Iceberg Slim' _Airtight Willie & Me_ 30: I was about to tell him what
a thoroughbred, stand-up Nigger he was.

The positive use is equally common as 'my/your/his/her nigger', cites for
which can be found at least as early as the 1930s; i.e.

1937 Himes 'The Night's for Crying' (in _Collected Short Stories_ 1990) 132:
A passing brownskin answered to the call of 'Babe,' paused before her
'nigger' in saddle-backed stance, arms akimbo.

Jonathon Green