Barack Obama doesn’t bleep out the most controversial word in America, and he’s taking heat for it
Over the past few days, politicians, news anchors and cultural critics have been discussing race issues at length in light of the tragic shooting at Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina, and President Barack Obama has not abstained. On Thursday morning, the POTUS looked visibly disgusted at his press conference, in which he said he’s had to make statements like the one he made last week “too many times,” and more recently, he sat down with comedian Marc Maron for a podcast where he discussed similar issues in a less formal setting.
Obama declared that “we are not cured” of racism, and clarified his standpoint by with the following:
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.
Since that episode of the podcast was released, the internet has been ablaze with comments–some informed, most not–about Obama’s non-omission of the word, some of which you can read below.
White pundits are pretending to be mad that Pres. Obama used the n-word; in actuality they’re mad they can’t use it. pic.twitter.com/gPISv9iuwg
— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) June 22, 2015
Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States (to use the n-word). — Neal Brennan (@nealbrennan) June 22, 2015
President Obama drops the N-word during an interview. You, sir, have disgraced the office of the presidency. — toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) June 22, 2015
I’m offended that Obama used the n-word amongst a bunch of other words to create context for discussing race intelligently on a podcast.
— Damien Fahey (@DamienFahey) June 22, 2015
