Djimon Hounsou Says His Son Was Called The N-Word

It’s no secret to any Black parent that raising kids means  having to guide them through racism. For Djimon Hounsou, this happened when his 10-year-old son Kenzo Lee Hounsou (whose mother is Kimora Lee Simmons) told him he was called the N-word by a classmate. 

“I went to pick up my son from a soccer game one time and he says to me some other kid called him the N-word. That’s how early it starts,” Hounsou said on SiriusXM’s The Clay Cane Show on March 10. “He’s wondering, ‘Why do you have to call me that word?”

Kenzo is only 10 years old. Djimon said, “I was wondering, ‘When do they start to get treated like a second class citizen?'”

Asked how he dealt with the incident, the Oscar-nominated actor told Cane that he was at the soccer game. “I said, ‘Which kid?’ And the kid was getting in the car and left. I said, ‘Well, don’t take that personally. Some people just feel insecure and they just feel like they have to call you some type of derogative [word].”

The actor was promoting his upcoming film A Quiet Place Part II, which hits theaters on March 20.

Listen to Hounsou’s heartbreaking story below from The Clay Cane Show, which airs weekdays at 1 p.m. EST on SiriusXM Urban View: