US President Barack Obama. Photo: AFP
US President Barack Obama used the n-word during an interview to argue that there is an ongoing struggle against racism in the United States.
“Racism, we are not cured of it,” he said. “And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public.”
In the interview, which was for a podcast with comedian Marc Maron, 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 also lamented Congress' lack of will to enact stricter gun controls.
“It's not just a matter of overt discrimination,” the president said. “Societies don't, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.”
The interview came days after a mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, which police believe was motivated by racial hatred. Nine black worshippers were killed by a gunman during a bible study group at an African-American church.
The suspect, Dylann Roof, has been pictured holding the Confederate flag, a symbol used by southern states in the civil war when they tried to break away to prevent the abolition of slavery.
The shooting 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.
A version of this story was first published on radionz.co.nz.