Don Lemon had a point to make about racism, and he quite literally spelled it out for CNN Tonight viewers Monday.

The 49-year-old journalist first held up a Confederate flag and asked, "Does this offend you?" Then, Lemon picked up a sign with the N-word printed boldly and uncensored in all capital letters. "Does this offend you?" he asked. "This word?"

Lemon pointed out that a lot of people were "shocked" when Barack Obama recently used the word on the "WTF With Marc Maron" podcast. (The president used the offensive term uncensored to make a point about racism, saying, "We are not cured of it. And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say n--ger in public. That's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not.")