Caleb McLaughlin On The Racism He Faces From ‘Stranger Things’ Fans – The Hollywood Reporter

Strange things star Caleb McLaughlin recently shared about the racism he faced when the hit sci-fi series first hit Netflix.

The actor reflected on his first Comic-Con when some people didn’t want to be in his ranks and attributed it to the way his character, Lucas Sinclair, treated Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven in part One.

“That definitely influenced me as a kid,” he said at Heroes Comic Con Belgium Conference. “Some people didn’t stand in my line because I am black. Some people have said to me, “Oh, I don’t want to be in your ranks but because you have malice against Eleven.”

McLaughlin, 20, went on to explain that it still happens sometimes, “Even now some people don’t follow me or support me because I’m Black,” he continued. “Sometimes abroad you feel racism, you feel bigotry. Sometimes it’s hard to talk and let people understand, but when I was younger, that definitely influenced me a lot.”

He started the series when he was 14, and he recalls at the time wondering why he was the least-liked on the show, with fewer followers than his co-stars. that. “I’m on the show like everyone from season one,” he recalls thinking.

The actor said his parents had to sit down and tell him a “sad truth.”

“My parents had to say, ‘It’s a sad truth, but it’s because you’re the Black kid on the show,’” McLaughlin shared. “Because I was born with this gorgeous chocolate skin, I’m unpopular.”

Despite the racism he faced, he now refuses to let it take him down.

“That’s why with my foundation, I want to spread positivity and love,” McLaughlin said, “because I don’t take revenge on people who hate me.”