President Obama says he once broke a schoolmate's nose after the then-friend called him a racial slur during a locker room fight.
The 44th president shared the revelation in an episode of his Spotify podcast with Bruce Springsteen, "Renegades."
"Listen, when I was in school, I had a friend. We played basketball together," Obama said during the conversation. "And one time we got into a fight and he called me a c---," Now first of all, ain’t no c---s in Hawaii, right? It’s one of those things that — where he might not even known what a c--- was — what he knew was, 'I can hurt you by saying this.'" Obama continued.
The country's first Black president added with a laugh, "And I remember I popped him in the face and broke his nose. And we were in the locker room." "Well done," Springsteen responded.
Take a listen to the full conversation between President Obama and Bruce as they reflect on their early experiences with race and racism.
Photo by ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images