Washington - US President Barack Obama underlined the
depth of his frustration over American's ongoing battle
with racism Monday, employing the racially-charged "N-
word" in a radio interview to underline a point.
Obama made his remarks to "WTF with Marc Maron" as
the nation was struggling to comprehend the murders last
week of nine African American churchgoers at an evening
prayer service, allegedly at the hands of a white
supremacist.
The president's frank response sparked fresh controversy
because of his use of "nigger" in the interview a word so
charged that most Americans dare not even utter it, using
the term "N-word" instead.
"It is incontrovertible that race relations have improved
significantly during my lifetime and yours, and that
opportunities have opened up, and that attitudes have
changed," the president told the show's host, comedian
Marc Maron in remarks released on Monday.
"What is also true is 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," the US leader said. "We're not
cured of it."
"It's not just a matter of it not being polite to say 'nigger'
in public," Obama continued. "That's not the measure of
whether racism still exists or not."
His comments were made public five days after the
shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South
Carolina, the bloodiest attack on a black church in the
United States, since the civil rights era.
The alleged shooter, Dylann Roof, 21, has been charged
with murder and is being held in jail.
The shooting on Wednesday occurred with the nation
already emotionally raw from a spate recent of racially
tense confrontations between police and African
Americans.
Police killings and the subsequent protests triggered
debate about the persistence of racial injustice decades
after inroads made during the civil rights movement.