Comedian Chris Rock, in his routine ‘Niggas vs. Black People’, distinguished a ‘nigga’, which he defined as a ‘low-expectation-having mother-f****r,’ from ‘a black person’.

By contrast, the late Tupac Shakur distinguished it thus: ‘N****rs was the ones on the rope, hanging off the thing; niggas is the ones with gold ropes, hanging out at clubs.’

No wonder, then, that white people may be even more confused as to whether ‘nigga’ is actually a racist or offensive word.

Gwyneth Paltrow ran foul of this confusion when she tweeted ‘Ni**as in Paris for real’ after attending a concert in Paris given by Jay-Z and Kanye West which ended with the MCs playing their hit song ‘Niggas in Paris’ over and over as the show finished.