Henry Louis Gates interviews Tarantino over use of the "n" word

Since 1994's Pulp Fiction, the n-word been an issue -- not so much for Quentin Tarantino but for some of the viewers of his films. Why does he use it so liberally in his movies?

Things are no different with his latest film, Django Unchained, opening Christmas Day. In the postmodern, slave-narrative Western starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio as sadistic plantation owner Calvin Candie, the word "nigger," by some counts, is uttered 110 times.

In the second part of a three-part interview with The Root's editor-in-chief, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Tarantino explains exactly how he feels about critics of the n-word use in Django. The filmmaker also chats with Gates about the graphic and shocking ways he chose to depict the atrocities of slavery in the film and how he conceived of Samuel L. Jackson's despicable character, Stephen, Candie's head house slave.