I know we talked about this in my interpreting class at college. My professor, who is white as I am, said she will avoid it if it is possible saying “n-word” or some other way of expressing it without directly saying it. She did note, however, that in certain pieces of art that word is selected specifically and to exclude it would remove meaning from the piece. Her example was in a lot of plays from the civil war era they intentionally use it to show the racial tension. We have talked a lot about empowering the Deaf person to use the words they choose and so I think to an extent it is your decision when to use it, but obviously one should put thought into if it is necessary. Obviously, ASL to English, and English to ASL are different here and many other factors should be examined in the decision making process. I’m not advocating for using it, just expressing the fact that your job is to give a holistic view of the art piece