Obama uses n-word in racism interview

WASHINGTON 

President Barack Obama used a racially offensive word while discussing U.S. race relations during an interview released Monday.

"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 on the podcast with comedian and host Marc Maron.

“That's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not,” he said referring to the n-word. “It's not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don't, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior," he said, while adding, “The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives, you know, that casts a long shadow, and that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on.”

Jim Crow were racial segregation laws in the southern U.S. that began in the late 1800s.

A White House spokesman said Obama has no regrets about using the word that is offensive to blacks. 

“The president’s use of the word and the reason he used the word could not be more apparent,” said Josh Earnest.

Last week's mass killings at an historic southern black church prompted discussions about domestic race relations and gun control.

A 21-year-old white gunman killed nine black church members in what authorities are investigating as a hate crime at the Emanuel A.M.E. church in Charleston, South Carolina.

He told his victims, “You rape our women, and you’re taking over our country – and you have to go,” according to the lone survivor of the attack.

Overall, Obama believes progress has been made when it comes to race.

"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," he said.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will travel to South Carolina on Friday to attend the funeral of Emanuel A.M.E. Church Rev. Clementa Pinckney who was killed in the attack, according to the White House. Obama, who was a personal friend of Pinckney, will deliver the reverend's eulogy.