Well that's really the only bar we have for offensive language, isn't it? If we need a higher bar than that then I suppose we can all just go around insulting each other and expecting nothing to happen as a consequence. Good luck with that.
If you want something more objective, why don't you just ask a sample of people whether they react the same to 'n-word' as they do to the n-word?
If you want something more objective, why don't you just ask a sample of people whether they react the same to 'n-word' as they do to the n-word?