But there were also instances of casual racism that can’t be so easily rationalized. Biographer Caro also notes that Johnson is said to have replied as follows to a black chauffeur who told him he’d prefer to be called by name instead of “boy,” “******” or “chief”:
As long as you are black, and you’re gonna be black till the day you die, no one’s gonna call you by your goddamn name. So no matter what you are called, ******, you just let it roll off your back like water, and you’ll make it. Just pretend you’re a goddamn piece of furniture.
All of which is to acknowledge that, without question, Lyndon Johnson used the N-word in private conversations. What is in question is whether Johnson in fact uttered this particular instance of it: “I’ll have those ******s voting Democratic for 200 years.”