Obama uses N-word in interview about race relations

President Barack Obama used the n-word during an interview released Monday to make a point that there’s still plenty of room for America to combat racism.

“Racism, we are not cured of it. And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public,” Obama said in an interview for the podcast “WTF with Marc Maron.”

“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.”

The jarring comment comes as the nation is engaged in a debate over the role of race after a white supremacist killed nine African-Americans last week in a historically black church in Charleston. They also reflect a growing willingness for Obama to discuss race during the final years of his presidency.

Obama said there has been progress on race relations over the decades, citing his own experience as a young man who was born to a white mother and an African father.

“I always tell young people, in particular, do not say that nothing has changed when it comes to race in America, unless you’ve lived through being a black man in the 1950s or ’60s or ’70s. It is incontrovertible that race relations have improved significantly during my lifetime and yours,” Obama said.

But he added that “the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination” exists in institutions and casts “a long shadow and that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on.”

The White House released a statement saying that this is not the first time the President has used the N-word. “Truth is he uses the term about a dozen times in Dreams from my Father,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said.

Obama lamented Congress’s lack of action on gun control and said “Unfortunately, the grip of the NRA on Congress is extremely strong. I don’t foresee any legislative action being taken in this Congress.”