context. situation.
i can call my gay friend "poodle" or "girly boy", but he'd be truly upset if a stranger said anything like that to him or more than likely the stranger would say something quite worse.
what you say within a circle of friends is one thing, what you say to an anonymous group of people is quite another.
with my close friends, i swear like a sailor, but in circles outside my close friends, i refrain from swearing.
having said all that, i would never use the N-word even in jest except to my husband when we're alone cuz it's just one of my ways to yank his chain a little bit.
he's knows fully well that i harbor absolutely no predjudice. he just hates hearing that particular word, although he is fully aware that the few times i do utter it that i am just trying to get his goat.
he's not fond of my using the C-word either... yknow cunt.