LONDON: Beatles legend Paul McCartney admits he used to use "racist" terms without knowing they were offensive.
He said he didn't realise the language he used with his friends was offensive and upset people of different ethnicities, femalefirst.co.uk reports.
"When I was a kid, you were racist without knowing it. It was just the normal thing to use certain words that you would not use now. Along the way, we suddenly realised how it would make the people you were talking about feel," McCartney told Event magazine.
"I don't think until then we had ever even thought about other people. It was like a joke between ourselves," he added.
The veteran musician said a lot of people in his generation used words which one "wouldn't use now".
"But then someone points out, 'Well, that's denigrating...' you know, in my case, black people. And then the penny drops, and I think that's what happened for a lot of people. Certainly a lot of people in my generation used to use words you wouldn't use now," McCartney said.