Alan,
You are right, the word is used by the character
Jimmy (played by Quenting Tarantino) in Pulp Fiction.
What's interesting about the use of
that word in that particular instance is that
1)Tarantino's character is the one using the
word, 2)he's using it because he knows that he won't
receive negative repercussions because Jules needs his
help, and 3)Jules and Jimmy obviously have some sort
of history together or else Jules would not have let
him say it no matter the situation.
I still stand by my original position, which was
that Tarantino does not throw the word nigger around
without thinking about it beforehand and that he is a
much better filmmaker than most that can be found in
Hollywood.
Jim