The word appears 6 times.
Not having read this yet, the novel takes place in New Orleans during the 1960's; a time of great racial tension all over the United States.
"Cut out the crap." "Hey! Whoa!" "You got any experience as a porter?" "Wha? Sweepin and moppin and all that nigger shit?" "Watch your mouth, boy. I got a clean business." "Hell, anybody do that, especially color peoples." "I've been looking," Lana Lee said, becoming a grave personnel manager, "for the right boy for this job for several days."
"Well, I gonna tell the po-lice I gainfully employ, keep him off my back, tell him I met up with a humanitaria payin me twenty dollar a week. He says, 'That fine, boy. I'm glad to see you straighten out.' And I say, 'Hey!' And he say, 'Now maybe you be becomin a member of the community.' And I say, 'Yeah, I got me a nigger job and nigger pay. Now I really a member of the community. Now I a real nigger. No vagran. Just nigger.' Whoa! What kinda change you got?"
"Hey! You soun just like the Lee mother. To bad you two ain met. She love you. She say, 'Hey, boy, you the kinda fool old-timey nigger I been looking for all my life.' She say, 'Hey, you so sweet, how's about waxin my floor and paintin my wall? You so darlin, how's about scrubbin my tawlet and polishin my shoes?' And you be sayin, 'Yes, ma'm, yes, ma'm. I'm well behave.'