Obama uses ‘n-word’ in interview about US race relations

US President Barack Obama has used the “n-word” during an interview to argue that the United States has yet to overcome its issues with racism.

“Racism, we are not cured of it,” the president said. “And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public.”

Mr Obama was being interviewed by comedian Marc Maron for a podcast that was published on Monday.
He also lamented Congress’ lack of will to enact stricter gun controls.

“It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination,” he said. “Societies don’t, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.”

Mr Obama acknowledged that attitudes about race in the US have improved since his childhood, but he said that America’s history of enslaving black people “casts a long shadow and that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on.”

He has publicly used the n-word before but not as president. He used the word several times in his book Dreams from my Father.

The interview came days after a mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, which police believe was motivated by racial hatred.

The shooting has restarted a debate over a Confederate flag that flies on the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and others have called for the flag to be removed, calling it a symbol of racism.
Mr Obama did not reference the flag in the interview, but he said on Friday that the flag belongs in a museum and should not be flown.

The shooting has also reignited debate over gun-control laws in the US.

In the same interview, Mr Obama lamented the influence that anti-gun-control lobbyists have on the US Congress, and how they prevented the enactment of stronger gun control legislation after the mass killing of school children in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.

“The grip of the NRA on Congress is extremely strong,” he said.

“I will tell you, right after Sandy Hook, Newtown, when 20 six-year-olds are gunned down, and Congress literally does nothing – yes, that’s the closest I came to feeling disgusted,” he said. “I was pretty disgusted.”

Credit: BBC