Obama, in podcast, uses N-word to make point on racism [View all]
Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday ignited a storm of social media debate when he used a racial epithet in an interview posted online that discussed race relations following the recent killings of nine black churchgoers.
"It's not just a matter of it not being polite to say 'nigger' in public. That's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It's not just a matter of overt discrimination," Obama, the first black U.S. president, told Mark Maron, host of the "WTF" podcast, in an hour-long chat.
The word has a long U.S. history and is almost never used in public remarks, particularly by politicians, and Obama's use of it comes amid a fresh round of soul-searching by many Americans over the country's long struggle with racism.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest, at a daily briefing with reporters on Monday, said Obama intended to be provocative by using the word and to illustrate a larger point.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-podcast-says-racism-were-not-cured-134336193.html
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