Wow...this got long fast. The directly relevant part is the first paragraph.
I'm Black. That's the term I mostly use, though Negro or African-American come up when I try (and fail) to be funny.
In my part of The United States, South Florida, Miami-Dade County. "Nigga" has become synonymous with "Dude". I'm not kidding.
In my generation, Upper High School, we don't tend to see ethnicity or skin color as a big issue. We make A LOT of racist joke with our friends (Cubans are a favorite target) but never have I heard ****** or Nigga used with true malice, nor any other slur. I've actually never heard any other slur at all. When you can tell it was with malice, then everyone suddenly gets real and verbally (rarely physically) pounces on the offender. Most often it's used as a joke.
Is that a good thing? My friends and I treat racism as a joke. Everything from bad country accents to thug rapper impersonations, and dumb things like "It's because I'm black isn't it"..."Yep" *Idiotic laughter*. I guess It's because this is the first generation I've seen that realizes the stupidity of racism or prejudice against any group of people. Even Homophobia is rare (Gay jokes are not).
I've even seen a white person call another white person nigga like it was nothing. No one gave it a second thought. The only ones who get angry about it are the older generation on all sides. I've actually met more Black racist of all ages, or Cuban and Mexican racist that are from the older generations or immigrants.
Just remembered I've heard the term "Refugees" used for Cubans, BY A CUBAN.
Race only comes up when a cop gets killed by some wannabe "gangsta" and the "Hood Rats" or "Cholas" start screaming that the system is racist. The news tends to use African-American and Black interchangeably.
Racist still exist on all sides, but I can see it dying. It won't disappear forever, but it's having less and less of an impact.