InstagramBarack Obama tackled some tough topics Friday on the podcast "WTF With Marc Maron."
The president even used the N-word as he made a point about racism still being prevalent today in the United States. "We are not cured of it. And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say n--ger in public," he said in Marc Maron's podcast, which went live Monday. "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."
Obama said that while attitudes regarding race have improved significantly during his lifetime, slavery "casts a long shadow and that's still part of our DNA that's passed on."
The president also spoke with Maron about Wednesday's tragic Charleston church massacre and his subsequent call for stricter gun control. "The point I made in the immediate aftermath of the killing was I've done this way too often," he explained. "During the course of my presidency, it feels as if a couple times a year, I end up having to speak to the country and speak to a particular community about a devastating loss and the grieving that the country feels is real...but I think part of the point that I wanted to make is it's not enough just to feel bad. There are actions that could be taken to make events like this less likely."
"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," he continued.
"Unfortunately, the grip of the NRA on Congress is extremely strong," said Obama. "I don't foresee any legislative action being taken in this Congress. And I don't foresee any real action being taken until the American public feels a sufficient sense of urgency and they say to themselves, 'This is not normal, this is something that we can change, and we're going to change it.'"