Even though President Barack Obama sat down with comedian Marc Maron for over an hour for an episode of Maron’s WTF podcast, the only segment that appears to be getting attention is Obama using the n-word during a discussion on race. Obama’s interview was recorded just after the Charleston church shooting that left nine people dead.
Maron interviewed the president at his garage in Los Angeles on Friday. The comedian posted the interview on WTFpod.com this morning and it is also available on iTunes.
“We are not cured of it,” Obama told Maron when it comes to racism in the U.S., notes the Huffington Post. “And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say n***er 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.”
Obama said again, as he did after the Charleston shooting, that no other developed country considers these mass shooting incidents normal.
“But I think part of the point that I wanted to make was, it’s not enough to just feel bad,” Obama explained, notes Politico. “There are actions that could be taken to make events like this less likely, and 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.”
Obama bluntly told Maron that he doesn’t think there’s a chance that any of this will change, as long as Congress doesn’t act and the NRA keeps a grip on politicians.
“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,’” Obama said. “And if you don’t have that kind of public and voter pressure, then it’s not going to change from the inside.”