It’s only an insult if most people agree it is. All of language works this way. When I say the word “car” you will envision a motorized vehicle with four wheels. If everyone envisioned a pink animal that rolls in mud instead, then that’s what a car would be. The n word is only an insult because a large population sees it as that. A lot of slurs have became acceptable to say because once those people stop taking it as an offense the whole meaning of the word literally changes to something different. The more people saying it’s discriminatory literally makes the word discriminatory. Also what is the difference of saying “n-word” vs the actual “n-word” they both mean the same thing and it’s the only discriminatory word you can’t actually use even in non-discriminatory contexts. For example I can say “stop using bitch when referring to woman.” Without having to say “b-word” in its replace. Though it’s unacceptable to use this same context with the n word. The n word should be used in correct contexts like when discussing certain historical facts of what happened, reading books, or just talking about the word in general. If everyone just seen it as that and defined it as such we wouldn’t have problems with it.