anticipation the use of the N word

The use of the 'N' word in this book will be very prominent I feel. The book is set in the 1920's during the great depression where racism is still strong and blacks were not considered to be equals. I am not sure whether I feel if the N word is more offensive than other racial slurs. They basically all mean the same thing but the N word was not originally a racial slur. It was a word used to describe laziness. I feel that it is still offensive and should not be said but I do not believe that it is more offensive. The use of the word now and the use of the word back then were very different. Back then the word was simply the way that you were supposed to refer to african americans it was in a sense meant to be racist but no one knew better that is what they knew and you could not tell the other wise. However the use of the word today is solely to be racist and offensive. Now there is no excuse for using the word towards anyone for any reason. I am not saying that there was an excuse back then but people simply did not know any better that is what they knew.