Not my favorite Lennon song, but I actually think that using the racial slur, Lennon was pointing his finger the white men who created the slur rather than the black men and women it targeted.

In other words, it was Lennon's way of flipping the script. Lennon was a master at that, and never afraid to face the consequences.

E.g.: "We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ’n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”