Sterling K. Brown Details Son’s Reaction To Being Called The N-Word

Sterling K. Brown recalled an intense moment where his son was called a racist slur by another teenager. The actor detailed the story and explained that his son’s behavior was “evolved” than his would have been in the moment.

“My 14-year-old was in a soccer game where a young boy spat on him, and he saw the spit, and he walks up to the ref and he goes, ‘Ref, this dude just spat on me.’ And the ref was like, ‘I didn’t see it, so I can’t do anything about it,’” recalled the 49-year-old, according to PEOPLE Magazine.

“Then, afterwards, the young man came up to him and called him the N-word and just kind of kept it going. And my son didn’t tell me until after the game, and I was like, ‘Yo, man, how come we didn’t beat his a**?’ And he was like, ‘Because that wouldn’t have solved anything. He already did what he was going to do. The ref didn’t respond to it or whatnot. So I didn’t want to make you any more upset, which is why I didn’t tell you until after the game.’“

He continued to exclaim, “So he’s a more evolved person than me. I would’ve beat his a**!” 

The This Is Us star and his wife, Ryan Michelle Bathé, met at Stanford University, according to NBC. Together, the couple has two sons, Andrew, who was born in 2011, and Amaré in 2015.

“Being a father is the most important job that I have in my life right now,” shared the St. Louis native, per PEOPLE. “And so for the next nine years, if I can keep working in L.A. and be like the one dude who figured it out, I would be very, very excited about that, [because] I don’t want to miss too much of their growing up.”