White House press secretary Josh Earnest has stated that President Obama does not regret using the N-word during his interview with WTFPodcast host Marc Maron.
“He does not,” said Earnest when asked if Obama regretted using the term. “The president’s use of the word and the reason he used the word could not be more apparent.”
Obama was discussing the recent events that have brought the troubled history America has of failing to deal with racism.
The president expressed that America still has many challenges to face when dealing with the problem of racism, by no means is the country “cured” of it.
“Racism, we are not cured of it. And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public,” President Obama said. “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.
“We’ve made progress, but more needs to be done,” said Earnest, echoing sentiments of Obama that the United states has come a long way from where it was in the 1950s and 1960s.
Earnest said that Obama was not surprised by the reaction the public has had to his comments. In fact, the White House expects that his comments have prompted a “careful consideration of what he said.”
According to the Hill, Obama also said the word while reading for the audiobook version of Dreams from My Father.
