President Obama was interviewed on “WTF with Marc Maron” (2009- ), a twice-weekly podcast hosted by comedian Marc Maron. The interview took place in Maron’s garage on Friday June 19th 2015 and went online yesterday, the 22nd. The interview is best known for Obama’s public use of the N-word:
“We’re not cured of it – racism. We’re not cured of it. And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger 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.”
Marc Lamont Hill tweeted:
“Shout out to the people outraged that the president said “nigger” once but don’t care about the countless times he’s been called it since 08.”
Since Obama is Black, it should not be a big deal, especially since he did not call anyone the N-word but just talked about it as a racist word.
Far worse was when he called those who rioted in Baltimore “thugs” – but not Dylann Roof.
Presidents known to use the N-word in private: Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman, Franklin Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Abraham Lincoln.
On racism, Obama said that the country has made huge progress in the past 50 years, but that it is far from cured. His two main suggestions for making things better:
- Police reform, which he says he is working on, and
- Early childhood education for poor Black children, which lacks political support: Whites do not understand that the fate of their own children and grandchildren is bound to the fate of Black people.
It was not a hard-hitting interview. No questions about drones, for example. Maron pretty much let Obama shoot the breeze for an hour.
Obama says he is not easily angered, something he got from growing up in Hawaii. He got his “homespun” values from Kansas by way of his mother.
Obama says he is fearless – he has gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel, so to speak, and lived. He does not sweat the small stuff. Being president is like steering a huge ship: change is going to be slow and seem small at first. He uses the Reagan Test: Is the average person better off now than four years ago? Or, more generally, has he done more good than harm? He thinks he has. Obamacare, as imperfect as it is, has saved lives.
His most frustrating moment as president was when Congress did little about gun control after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
His greatest joy in life is his two daughters, Malia and Sasha. But they are now at that age where they love him but only talk to him for ten minutes because they think he is boring. They complain about the bodyguards, but he points out that they get to stay out later at night with their friends because of them. He was afraid the White House would make them stuck up. It has not.
– Abagond, 2015.
See also:
- The podcast – 67 minutes
- Barack Obama
- The N-word
- The word “thug”
- School shootings
- Dylann Roof
- Baltimore riot
547
LMFAO @ Abagond @ Obama using the “N” word.
well….He is in his last term. @ : o O ) >
LikeLike
Obama isn’t the first President to use the nword
He’s just the first to NOT use it as an insult
He’s also the first to get white people indignant about its use
Fox news is right, that fact is newsworthy /sarcasm
LikeLike
Abagond,
Who the f’ cares what Obama said — All this Media noise about Obama saying the word,
is Nothing more than the white racist media and Republicans trying to take back the Narrative
why are we even going to discuss this BS — it’s an obvious smoke and mirrors Game designed to distract from the real issues.
Since Nikki Haley turned on them, they’ve had nothing to say because they would look like the racist that they Truly are…
even though to me, their Silence on the
“accident” according to Rick PerryMassacre, spoke Volumesa poll was done on HLN, where 69% of pollsters stated that they think the Confederate (aka American Nazi) flag should stay up in S. Carolina.
That right there is the Real issue — not Obama uttering white America’s favorite word on air.
LikeLike
Obama is probably gonna work on social construct corrections during the very end of his very last few months in office. If he had done it any other time you know he probably wouldn’t have been voted in by special interest groups.
LikeLike
For all the complaining I’ve done about Obama over the years, Im not ready for another white republican president. If they are republican though please just don’t let them be a war hawk
LikeLike
Perhaps his main legacy will come AFTER he is president.
Unlike Bush, he won’t disappear at home somewhere.
LikeLike
Nearly all of it 1965-1980, and most of that 1965-1970.
Why does he pick 50 years, and not 40 or 30?
LikeLike
Funny how white people are taking issues with Obama saying the N-word. Seriously, did they not hear a word he said aside from that word? And for crying out loud, where was the outrage when he was called one since he took office?
LikeLike
The hypocrisy is disgusting. But I can’t say I’m surprised.
The white butthurt about black people using “the n word” has nothing to do with what’s good for black people but has everything to do with WHITE FEELINGS.
They are habitual thieves on a cultural level and they are f*&*(ing pissed that black people have access to something they can no longer own. From their perspective, this is not the natural state of affairs. They are used to taking 5hit from other people and claiming it as their own. However, in this trivial case, black people have repurposed a slur and debarred whites from using it.
There is nothing inherently offensive in the phonetic construction of the word. It got its meaning from the way whites used it to demean black people. So obviously they can’t use it in an environment where open expressions of racism are taboo. They can say it all they want…and I’m sure they do. They’re just not supposed to say it to us.
But that’s so unjust right? “Like, why can those black people say n***** to each other but we can’t call them n*****? We should be able to use it too if they can use it! They are the real racists! Waaah.”
F ’em.
LikeLike
“Unlike Bush, he won’t disappear at home somewhere”
Gee I hope you’re wrong. The sooner this fraud exits the stage the better.
LikeLike
My previous post was modded…probably for some faux-profanity but I’ll just follow up by saying that this is all about bruised white privilege and entitlement. They’re not used to being told “you can’t go there” especially with something that they formerly had access to. It doesn’t really affect their lives but they hate what it represents. They hate that Obama has the freedom to use it publicly in an expository way. That’s something only a very stupid white politician would attempt. The fact that they can detect even the tiniest hint of inequality should wake black people up to the wholesale white complicity in this racist system.
LikeLike
I spotted this comment on my Facebook page, which I found pretty fitting…
“Shout out to the people outraged that the President said ‘nigger’ once but don’t care about the countless times he’s been called it since 08” -Mark Lamont Hill
This pretty much sums up my thoughts on the faux outrage…
LikeLike
““Like, why can those black people say n***** to each other but we can’t call them n*****? We should be able to use it too if they can use it! They are the real racists! Waaah.”
F ’em. @ Origin-RofllllL
LikeLike
@Origin
“But that’s so unjust right? “Like, why can those black people say n***** to each other but we can’t call them n*****? We should be able to use it too if they can use it! They are the real racists! Waaah.””
“…this is all about bruised white privilege and entitlement. They’re not used to being told “you can’t go there” especially with something that they formerly had access to”.
That is exactly it.
LikeLike
Black people should be allowed to use the N word. White people should not. Half white people should be to use it only once.in a presidential term.
LikeLike
Smh… i hate these white media traps. Notice how they control the narrative. I don’t want to talk about the Confederate flag, the use of the N word, or gun control. NINE BLACK PEOPLE WERE MURDERED. We cannot allow them to steer the topic from anything other than the racist core of this country that is driving all of this violence against black people. So many of them are so misinformed on what racism is and how it operates in this country. These diversionary topics are just another example of WILLFUL white ignorance on race and racism.
LikeLike
@ Pumpkin
What do you mean by benevolent racism?
LikeLike
@ Pragmatist
@ Linda
So do you think it was deliberate on Obama’s part? Surely he would have a good idea how the media would react. He could have easily said “N-word” instead.
LikeLike
I think it was deliberate, because as you said, he could have used “N-word” instead.
LikeLike
“I think it was deliberate, because as you said, he could have used “N-word” instead.”
yep.
LikeLike
@TeddyBearSniffer
“Obama is probably gonna work on social construct corrections during the very end of his very last few months in office.”
I guess it’s true that you can fool some of the people all of the time. If you learn nothing else from Obama’s seven years of benign (cynical) neglect, learn this. HE DOES NOT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE.
“Amnesty International is making some very modest requests of the U.S. government. They’re asking the Congress to pass laws that would bring the states into compliance with international law. They’re asking that the President create a national task force on policing and on crime, something that Obama will claim that he’s already done. President Obama certainly is not going to, however, push for these measures”
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14083
LikeLike
I don’t believe it was deliberate on Obama’s part. He is black and used the word in context.
To me, it’s like a bio teacher using the words ‘penis’ and ‘vagina’ to speak to high school students about sexual reproduction. It is inappropriate to speak about sex in a public setting, however if done for educational purposes with proper presentation, I wouldn’t expect that bio teacher to be reprimanded and/or fired. I believe Obama honestly didn’t expect this childish outcome.
LikeLike
Black people have to be like a professional soldier when it comes to racism.
A professional soldier on the streets of Iraq or Afghanistan is more than likely getting called all sorts of names by the locals.
They don’t move a muscle.
Should one of the locals attack them then they’d put that fire out very quickly.
Black people have to adopt the same mentality.
And should a black person react ? That white or non-black person will go right into vunerable victim mode in a heartbeat
“O, I did not mean like that !! Please don’t hurt me”
“[Insert Any Black Person They Know] does not mind when I use that world”
I learned that a school, were I saw many black kids, suspended, detained or punished because they reacted to a racist word and the other thing is saying nothing, does not mean doing nothing because most of the times other white people will check-mate them and tell them that’s it wrong.
Use of the N-Word is them trying to jockey for a position
LikeLike
“Abagond,
So do you think it was deliberate on Obama’s part? Surely he would have a good idea how the media would react. He could have easily said “N-word” instead.”
Linda says,
I think that Obama used the word on purpose, to put emphasis on it’s meaning and the manner at which it was traditionally Used.
the “N”-word was created BY white people to be USED by white people in order to demean and insult African descendants and anyone/group of people who they deem as “black”
and the word was used quite casually in public, as if white people were saying “good morning”, all the way up to the 1970s.
(and the ONLY reason they stopped was that they soon learned calling a black person the “N”-word in public got them physically hurt)
in context, Obama was emphasizing that point–which was, white people don’t get an extra brownie points or pass, just because they don’t say the word out loud in public anymore.
The media Chose to pursue this FAKE outrage about Obama saying the word –
in order to move away from topics that they really don’t want to discuss too long because discussing racism makes white Americans Uncomfortable.
and the media purposely IGNORED the context surrounding Obama’s entire sentence, which was about the ever present prejudice, stereotypes, and racism that still exists in the USA.
So to me, the onus about the media’s reaction, is NOT on Obama – their reaction was calculated and purposeful
instead of sticking to the main meat on the plate, the media Chooses to examine the light gravy instead, as usual — so that they don’t OFFEND white America… the ONLY audience they give a sh’t about!
LikeLike
Thank you for linking to the episode in question. 🙂 I’ve always hated it when news reports refer only obliquely to something and be coy about it. This is especially the case when it is a science journal or study. Granted most news is just filler for the average person but, not mentioning even the name?
There are a set of numbers at the end of this and the other post below it. Is this a word count?
LikeLike
Talk about taking things out of context.
LikeLike
@ Kiwi
I remember reading your original comment on the anger translator thing. At the time it seemed SO irrelevant. I tried to answer your comment but could not bring myself to do it.
I do not know, but I presume that that skit was arranged months in advance. On the other hand, comedians who do political humour know they have to stay up-to-date.
I have seen Key and Peele’s anger translator skits before on YouTube. I am pretty sure they are meant as satire, but I doubt it works like that for many White viewers, so that it confirms rather than deconstructs the stereotypes in questions. It reminds me of the “satirical” New Yorker cover showing Barack Obama as a Muslim and Michelle as a 1960s-style Black revolutionary. It is trying to make a stereotype look ridiculous, but to those who hold it it will not seem that way.
LikeLike
Far worse was when he called those who rioted in Baltimore “thugs” – but not Dylann Roof.
I hope he called Dylann Roof “genocidal maniac” instead? That term should cover Roof’s actions better than the word “thug.”
LikeLike
He is probably the only President who didn’t use it as an intentional slur. Again as i said in an up thread post this is being blown out of proportion and probably is the msm intention to try and distract from the real problems plaguing our communities. This giving zero f**ks and damns about black lives is happening with alarming frequency. We can’t count on the government or law enforcement officials to protect or serve us. Were can people in black bodies be safe?
LikeLike
Mary, you are right. For me, it is very clear that is blown out of proportion.
When Obama will enter a classroom saying “Good morning, boys and girls!”, and then has an hour-long interesting speech on the benefits of a good education, I guess the media will spin it as “Obama uses again terms that are insulting to blacks! He said BOY!!! ”
LikeLike