I find it weird to make a distinction between 'nigger' and nigga'. I mean, it's the same damn word, just pronounced differently. When you hear someone with an English accent say the term, will you first ask him to write it down to see if he meant it in a casual way or in an outright racist manner?
Beause they pronounce both terms the same way.

If he writes nigger: "You fooking racist m8, Imma fuck your shit up."
If he writes nigga: "Aaah sheeet, you mah nikka. Be careful though dawg, people can get offended."


This joking aside. Yes, I'm sure people primarily think of 'bundle of sticks' when they hear the term 'faggot'. Gay people might get offended by the term, just as black people might get offended by the terms 'nigger, negro or nigga'. Or short people by the term midget.

This is what I meant by shortsighted. Using the term 'nigger' doesn't make you a racist, nor does using the term 'faggot' make you a homophobe. You can conclude it's thoughtless or offensive (because some people might be offended by it), but nothing more. People get offended all the time and it's subjective.
Discriminating against people from different races makes you a racist (basically just people from different cultures and of different skin color because race by now is almost entirely a social concept).

The problem of racism in society isn't really about some terms, it's about attitudes and actions, and about the social and systemic remains of slavery and the Reconstruction era (when we're talking about the US).