“Stranger Things” star Caleb McLaughlin told a panel at Heroes Comic Con in Belgium this weekend that he has endured racist encounters with fans since the series premiered in 2016.
A video circulating on Twitter showed the 20-year-old actor portraying Lucas Sinclair in the Netflix tentpole series, explaining how fans treated him amid the show’s popularity and huge success. But being black had an effect.
“When the show first came out, it definitely had an impact on me as a little kid,” the actor said. My First Comic-Con, Some People Didn’t Stand in My Line That’s why I was black.”
“Stranger Things,” which just saw a resurgence in Netflix statistics and huge pop culture buzz with a two-part Season 4 release this summer, tells the story of a group of four young boys named Eleven (Millie). Stumble upon a telekinetic girl. Bobby Brown) and an alternate dimension located within his Hawkins, Indiana city.
“Some people said to me, ‘Oh, I didn’t want to be in your line because you were mean to Eleven,'” McLaughlin continued.
McLaughlin’s character Lucas has some suspicions about the young girl, who can move things with her mind and – as it is revealed later in the series – open and close doors into the dark realm called “The Upside Down”. could. While Mike (Finn Wolfhard) immediately falls in love with her, Lucas wonders if she uses her powers for good or if she is associated with the evil that stems from The Upside Down.
“Even now, some people don’t follow or support me because I’m black,” he said. “Sometimes abroad you’ll feel racism. You’ll feel bigotry. It’s hard to talk about and for people to understand.”
“Stranger Things” touches on racial discrimination in small moments throughout the show, like in the second season when the boys dress up as Ghostbusters, and Mike just assumed that Lucas’ name tag would read Winston because As Lucas says, he is the only Black One in the film. After the fourth season, Jezebel, teen Vogue And RogerEbert.com pointed to the striking part of the narrative in which Lucas and Erica are chased, and even held at gunpoint, by white opponents in Lucas’ case. McLaughlin went on to vocalize how he saw that despite being one of the original actors of Season 1, he didn’t have as many social media followers as his central co-stars.
“When I was younger, it definitely affected me a lot. My parents had to be like, ‘That’s the sad truth, but it’s because you’re the black child on the show,'” McLaughlin said.
“Because I was born with this beautiful chocolate skin, I’m not in love,” he continued, “but so, with this platform, I’m going to spread positivity and love because I don’t give back hate to those who have Diya hate me.”
The audience applauded the actor at the end of the clip.
