Oprah on N-Word Use: You're Not My Friend if You Say That

Oprah Winfrey has strong feelings about the n-word, which recently came up in scandals involving Paula Deen, Riley Cooper and of course Rae Dawn Chong.

Rae Dawn recently used the n-word in talking about Oprah herself. While Winfrey hasn't responded to her comments, she tells Parade in a new interview:

"You cannot be my friend and use that word around me."

"It shows my age, but I feel strongly about it ... I always think of the millions of people who heard that as their last word as they were hanging from a tree."

"I don't use the word. Never did."

Oprah was interviewed with The Butler co-star Forest Whitaker and director Lee Daniels, who admits, "It's a word I used quite a bit, until Oprah sat me down."

"She talked to me about its power."

Two weeks ago, Rae Dawn Chong raised eyebrows by saying her former co-star in The Color Purple would have been a "field n--ger" back in the day.

The daughter of Tommy Chong then claimed in a bizarre statement that this was a compliment somehow. We're guessing O didn't take it that way ...