What does "ni***r-lover" mean to residents of Maycomb? Why is it such a powerful insult?

One person who uses "ni***r-lover" a lot is Mrs. Dubose in chapter 11. However Cecil Jacobs, Scout's cousin Francis, and Bob Ewell also use other derivations of the insult to cause psychological and emotional harm towards others of their own race. Apparently, the social status quo for living in Maycomb seems to divide people by racial lines; so, a person who uses the N-word towards another white person intends for it to sting with intense disapproval for having crossed those lines. If a white person uses the N-word towards an African American, it is used to show racial, social and political dominance. There is nothing more offensive to white people in Maycomb than to see anyone crossing those pre-determined racial lines. White people want to maintain their dominance and control over how life is governed in their town (which symbolizes every other town in the South at that time, too). As a result, they throw out different uses of the N-word to intimidate others to step back into line with their way of life. Atticus has a couple of things to say about people using these words. First, when he is talking to his brother Jack about the Tom Robinson case, he says the following:

"You know what's going to happen as well as I do, Jack, and I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb's usual disease. Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand" (88).

Here Atticus basically says that reasonable people go crazy when those racial lines are threatened and he doesn't understand it. When Scout asks him about people calling him a "ni****-lover," like Mrs. Dubose, he tells her the following:

"Scout. . . ni****-lover is just one of those terms that don't mean anything--like snot-nose. . . ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody's favoring Negroes over and above themselves. It's slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody. . . baby, it's never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn't hurt you" (108).

With this passage, Atticus is trying to calm his daughter down about people verbally attacking him. The N-word is serious, but he teaches her not to take what other people say so hard because it really reflects who they are inside.