Obama Broke Friend’s Nose for Calling Him Racial Slur: ‘He Might Not Even Have Known’ What It Meant

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Former President Barack Obama said on an episode of his new podcast that he once broke the nose of a schoolmate who called him a racial slur.

The moment: Obama recounted the incident on episode No. 2 of “Renegades: Born in the USA,” an eight-episode series he cohosts with his rock star friend Bruce Springsteen.

  • As part of a discussion about race and racism, Obama said that during a fight with a basketball buddy at his Hawaii prep school, the boy referred to him as a “coon.”
  • According to Obama, his friend “might not even have known what a coon was — what he knew was, ‘I can hurt you.'”

Obama said that in reaction to the slur, “I popped him in the face and broke his nose. We were in the locker room and suddenly blood’s pouring down.”

  • “Don’t ever call me something like that,” Obama recalled explaining.

Springsteen sounded impressed, saying, “Well done,” but some conservative commentators doubted the story’s veracity.

Later in the conversation, Obama notably reversed his previous opposition to reparations for the American descendants of African slaves.

  • “The descendants of those who suffered those kinds of terrible, cruel, often arbitrary injustices deserve some sort of redress, some sort of compensation — a recognition,” he said.
  • Obama claimed he was only against reparations during his presidency “as a practical matter.”
  • “We can’t even get this country to provide decent schooling for inner-city kids,” he said.
By We'll Do It Live