Obama Uses N-Word As He Says US Is Still Racist

President Barack Obama has said the US has still not overcome its history of racism in the wake of the murders of nine African-American worshippers by a white man at a South Carolina church.

In an interview for comedian Marc Maron's WTF podcast , Mr Obama said that although attitudes about race have improved since he was born, the legacy of slavery was "still part of our DNA".

"Racism, we are not cured of it. And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say n***** in public," he 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."

Mr Obama will travel to Charleston on Friday to deliver a eulogy at the funeral of one of the shooting victims, Rev Clementa Pinckney.

On Friday, 21-year-old Dylann Roof was charged with the murder of nine people at the Emanuel Africa American Episcopal Church in Charleston.

A racist manifesto apparently written by Roof along with a series of photographs of him posing with guns emerged last week .

During the interview, which was released on Monday, the President expressed frustration with the National Rifle Association's (NRA) grip on Congress and the lack of movement on increased gun controls.

He said: "I will tell you, right after Sandy Hook, Newtown, when 20 six-year-olds are gunned down, and Congress literally does nothing - yes, that's the closest I came to feeling disgusted. I was pretty disgusted.

"The question is just: is there a way of accommodating that legitimate set of traditions with some common sense stuff that prevents a 21-year-old who is angry about something or confused about something or is racist or is deranged from going into a gun store.

"That is not something that we have ever fully come to terms with."

Mr Obama pushed for gun law reform after the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.

He proposed more background checks for gun sales, a ban on military-style assault weapons and a limit on ammunition magazine capacity, but he ran up against a legislative roadblock.

During the podcast, Mr Obama added: "I don't foresee any legislative action being taken in this Congress.

"And I don't forsee 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'."

On Saturday, Mr Obama took to Twitter to voice his anger at gun violence.

He wrote: "Here are the stats: per population, we kill each other with guns at a rate 297 times more than Japan, 49 times more than France, 33 times more than Israel."

On Monday, Charleston political and religious leaders called for the removal of Confederate flag, with which Roof posed in photos, from the South Carolina statehouse.

The Confederate flag is seen as a symbol of racial violence and oppression by many, while some white southerners romanticise it as a link to the Old South.

Walmart, the world's largest retailer, announced it would remove the flag from its stores, with spokesman Brian Nick saying: "We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer."

A day earlier, more than 10,000 people spread across the city's 2.5-mile Arthur Ravenel Bridge to hold hands in a show of solidarity after the church massacre.

Republican presidential hopefuls have been on the defensive after it emerged they received donations from a white supremacist leader who inspired Roof.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz has said he will hand back $8,500 he received from Earl Holt III, leader of the Council of Conservative Citizens, which has condemned the Charleston shooting.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said he was planning to donate the $2,250 he received from Mr Holt to families of the Charleston victims.

Another White House candidate, Rick Santorum, said he would do likewise with the $1,500 he received from Mr Holt.

Mr Holt also donated to a number of Republican members of Congress, reports the Guardian.

Mia Love, the only black female Republican in the House of Representatives, is returning $1,000 from him, her spokesman said.