- President told Marc Maron: 'Racism, we are not cured of it. And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say n****r in public'
- He also claimed slavery was 'still part of our DNA that's passed on'
- A previous push for greater gun controls was stymied by the National Rifle Asso
ciation's 'grip' on Congress, he said
- The politicians' inability to act following the Sandy Hook massacre was the closest Obama came 'to feeling disgusted', he added
President
Barack Obama says the United States is still infected with racism and
dropped the N-word in an interview released this morning to make his
point.
'Racism,
we are not cured of it,' Obama said. 'And it's not just a matter of it
not being polite to say n****r in public. 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
president, who was born to a white mother and a black father 53 years
ago, said that attitudes about race have improved significantly since he
was born to a white mother and black father. But the nation's history
of slavery 'casts a long shadow and that's still part of our DNA that's
passed on.'
Obama made the remarks in the context of last week's massacre at a historical black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Echoing
his Thursday statement on the shooting, the president said the nation
must determine how it can respect the rights of firearm owners while
keeping weapons out of the hands out of the mentally unstable.
VIP guest: The president arrived
Friday at Marc Maron's home in the Pasadena suburb of Highland Park
- close to where he attended Occidental College as a young man - for an
hour-long interview for Maron's WTF podcast
The Friday interview took place just
after a shooting in South Carolina at a historical black church and
Obama spent much of the interview reflecting on race relations in
America and gun culture
Strong language: While discussing
racism in America in light of Wednesday's massacre, Obama said: ‘Racism,
we are not cured of it,’ Obama said. ‘And it's not just a matter of it
not being polite to say n****r in public'
'The
question is just is there a way of accommodating that legitimate set of
traditions with some common-sense stuff that prevents a 21-year-old who
is angry about something or confused about something, or is racist, or
is deranged, from going into a gun store and suddenly is packing, and
can do enormous harm,' the president said, ostensibly referring to
Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old South Carolinian accused of carrying out
the shooting.
The added, 'And that is not something that we have ever fully come to terms with.'
Roof
is in police custody and has been charged with the deaths of nine
congregants at Emanuel AME church in Charleston following last
Wednesday's rampage.
The
interview with comedian Marc Maron for his podcast, WTF was recorded on
Friday but was not uploaded online until this morning.
The
president lamented how often he has to speak to the country 'about a
devastating loss,' and said, 'It's not enough just to feel bad.'
'There
are actions that could be taken to make events like this less likely,'
he said. 'And one of those actions we could take would be to enhance
some basic common sense gun safety laws that by the way the majority of
gun owners support.'