Barack Obama chose violence when a former classmate lost his marbles and called Barack a racial slur.
The former President and Bruce Springsteen discussed race on the premiere episode of their podcast, Renegades: Born In The USA with Bruce Springsteen, and Obama said he broke the young boy’s nose after the boy called him a racial slur.
“Listen, when I was in school, I had a friend. We played basketball together. And one time we got into a fight and he called me a c—.”
Obama joked,”Now first of all, ain’t no c—s in Hawaii, right?” before adding, “It’s one of those things that — where he might not [have] even known what a c— was — what he knew was, ‘I can hurt you by saying this.’”
Barack Obama recalled, “I remember I popped him in the face and broke his nose. And we were in the locker room.”
Springsteen praised him, “Well done.”
Obama continued saying that he set the boy straight. “I explained to him — I said, ‘Don’t you ever call me something like that.’”
“‘I may be poor. I may be ignorant. I may be mean. I may be ugly. I may not like myself. I may be unhappy. But you know what I’m not? I’m not you.’ That basic psychology that then gets institutionalized is used to justify dehumanizing somebody, taking advantage of ’em, cheatin’ ’em, stealin’ from ’em, killin’ ’em, raping ’em. Whatever it is, at the end of the day it really comes down to that. And in some cases it’s as simple as, you know, ‘I’m scared I’m insignificant and not important. And this thing is the thing that’s going to give me some importance.’”
Renegades; Born In The USA is produced by Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, and is available on Spotify.
