Bill Maher is still trying to make things right.

The comedian invited Michael Eric Dyson, a Georgetown professor who covers race, religion, culture and politics for The New York Times, to Real Time on Friday, and asked that he “school” him on his colossal mistake.

The 61-year-old stirred up big time controversy recently when he used the N-word during an interview with Nebraska senator Ben Sasse. He apologized after the fact, but understandably, people have not been able to let the upsetting statement go. Bill issued another apology, saying:

“For black folks, that word, I don’t care who you are, has caused pain. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t said in malice, if it brought back pain to people, and that’s why I apologized freely and I reiterate it tonight. That’s sincere. I’m not that big of an a**hole.”

He went on to explain what sometimes happens in a comedian’s mind. He said:

“I’m not here to make excuses. But first of all, the word is omnipresent in the culture, so the fact that it was in my mind is, you know…I just don’t want to pretend this is more of a race thing than a comedian thing. Comedians are a special kind of monkey, so to speak. We are a trained thing that tries to get a laugh, that’s what we do, that’s all we are always thinking…and sometimes we transgress a sensitivity point.”

Michael kept things mostly academic while reminding Bill to be aware of his white privilege.

Ice Cube, however, did not hold back. He told the host:

“[The racial slur is] like a knife. You can use it as a weapon or you can use it as a tool. It’s been used as a weapon against us by white people, and we’re not gonna let that happen again by nobody, because it’s not cool. It’s in the lexicon, everybody talk it, but it’s our word now. You can’t have it back. When I hear my homies say it, it don’t feel like venom. When I hear a white person say it, it feels like that knife stabbing me, even if they don’t mean it.”

That’s pretty clear!

While it’s not new information, we are confident this little chat with the founder of NWA has permanently set Bill straight.