LOCAL

Cheadle flouts status as 'Trump's African-American' with posts on NFL protest

Gregory Cheadle, right, was singled out by Donald Trump during his visit to Redding in June 2016 as "my African-American over there."

Gregory Cheadle wasn’t expecting a fan base.

But when then-candidate Donald Trump dubbed him “my African-American” at a 2016 rally in Redding — christening Cheadle as living proof that Trump’s views on race were sound, to some fellow supporters — he got one.

“It’s funny to see these people who love me,” Cheadle, of Happy Valley, said in an interview with the Record Searchlight on Friday.

Then Cheadle started a series of Facebook posts supporting the NFL players who have taken a knee during the national anthem. And the comments started.  

“We liked you before this.”

“What happened to you?”

The answer: Nothing.

“I’ve been this way forever,” Cheadle said. “I lived through segregation. I remember segregation well.”

That’s why it’s odd, Cheadle said, how some people feel about him now that he’s expressed a view he held all along: that America has systemic racial issues, and players aren't disrespecting the country by peacefully protesting them. 

“I wasn’t their boy,” he said. “And I’m not their boy. I’m an independent person.”

It's disappointing so many people wouldn't even entertain his point of view, Cheadle said.

“Just say (racial injustice) exists. They don't even want to do that," he said. "They would much rather argue that this is disrespectful." 

But Cheadle — who’s running for Congress — said the posts have gotten him some supporters, too.

And now that they’ve started, Cheadle says there’s no way around it: an issue he always avoided in the past — race — is going to be a central component of his latest run for office.

“The ship has sailed," he said. "Race is a conversation we need to have. Because if we don’t, we’re just going to keep on having this hatred smoldering. And it’s not healthy.”

It isn’t the first time he’s run. And Cheadle knows talking about race probably isn't the ticket to success in the largely white and conservative 1st congressional district.

But, “I don’t care about the votes,” he said. “I just care about justice, and attacking injustice.”

Cheadle said he’s seen plenty of it.

While he's a self-described “nerdy Negro,” Cheadle — appropriately dressed for the moniker in glasses and a collared shirt layered under an argyle sweater — said he knows what it's like to be followed by law enforcement officers for no apparent reason.

“I don’t deny it,” he said of his nickname. “I live up to it. Other people deny it.”

Cheadle stared into the distance, fingers laced, as he chose his words to describe people with racist views.

"They don't want someone who's been judged as inferior for millennia to take their place," he said.

Then he laughed.

Cheadle uses that kind of lighthearted humor to relate to people over race discussions, something that's difficult — but not impossible — on Facebook, he said. 

"I could have that victim mindset. But I like to have fun. That's what got me in trouble with Trump," he said of the "infamous" national news coverage that stemmed from Trump's comment to him.

He still supports Trump on most issues, but Cheadle said he's disappointed in him when it comes to race — especially because of the way he responded to white supremacists' appearance in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

"I criticized Obama, and I'm criticizing Trump," he said. "Trump had a golden opportunity to unite the country, and he's dividing it instead." 

That’s why Cheadle’s Facebook series, as he calls it, will go on.

“I realized there was far more to this based on how people responded," he said. "I think I'm reaching them by continuing the posts. ... We're all in this mess together."