President Obama joined comedian Marc Maron for his “WTF” podcast on Friday, and used the N-word while explaining that racism still persists in America.
“The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and discrimination in almost every institution of our lives—that casts a long shadow. And that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on. We’re not cured of it,” Obama said in the interview taped on Friday and published on Monday.
“Racism, we are not cured of. And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say ‘nigger’ in public,” the President continued. “That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don’t, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.”
Obama also addressed the shooting at a historic black church in Charleston last week and his call for stricter gun laws.
“It’s not enough just to feel bad,” he said about the attack. “There are actions that could be taken to make events like this less likely. One of those actions we could take would be to enhance some basic common-sense gun safety laws.”
Listen to Obama’s entire interview with Maron here.
