I remember these brown and craggy nuts referred to as nigger toes when I grew up. My mother would buy an assortment of nuts: chestnuts, almonds, walnuts and nigger toes. It didn't offend me but it rather disgusted me that anyone would want to eat something that resembled a hideous part of a negro's anatomy. I never liked nigger toes that were in the nut bowl. I always ate the other walnuts, almonds and chestnuts and used the nigger toes to throw around outdoors.