Yes but only if you are black.
I've known a lot of people and more than my fair share of strange individuals, but the only vicious racist I've ever met and interacted with regularly was a black man. Getting mugged a couple of times by particularly melanated
friends when he was a teen seemed to help form that bias.
Usually black people say that to each other like they're saying "bro" so they probably like you enough to call you that. It's like, they or their ancestors have been called that by their white masters or their oppressors so it's more of a solidarity thing, like "we all suffered through the same shit." If a white person says that to them, then it takes a different meaning of oppression and not solidarity.
What sort of human thinks about their ancestors' honor and solidarity while they speak, and who actually processes the things they hear in terms of oppression and U.S. history? Improvised dialogue is not inherently interpretive (and therefore not inherently deliberate), it's much more likely that this double-standard a product of social training; the United States is racially hyper-aware and people tend to assume the worst from out-group individuals.
For OP's question, dead terms are dead because
no one at all thought they were useful, and when a word is adopted or revived, all relevant meanings of the words are come back with it. I'm A-OK with black people using the word 'nigger', but so long as they do, they cannot be shocked when comedians use both definitions interchangeably for fun and profit, actual racists dredge up the old definition to hurt feelings, or whites try to use the new one that has become common language.
That's why I try to avoid using garbage words like 'toxic' when I'm able. Sure, it's a super useful term with a ton of utility, but the word was tethered with a pre-existing context by the people who created it, which
just so happens to justify the censuring of unpopular speech. If people ignore it and avoid using it, a new (and hopefully not so loaded) word will crop up to fill the void.
