Avengers Actor Don Cheadle Says He's Been Pulled Over by Police "More Times Than He Can Count"

06/19/2020 07:56 pm EDT

Avengers actor Don Cheadle says he's been pulled over by police "more times than he can count." He talked to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show about the experience this week. With Today being Juneteenth, an increased eye towards racism in America and the challenges that Black people face in the country. Cheadle's words in the interview echo the experience of a man who is a respected actor and he still experiences this kind of treatment, even after all the success he's experienced in popular films. His point goes to illustrate that there is no stratosphere that an individual can reach where that kind of treatment isn't at least a possibility.

"I think a lot of Black people have the story of how their parents had cautioned them about how to comport themselves when they come into contact with law enforcement and the rules of how to just make sure that you can come home and be safe and what you had to do," Cheadle said. "So, unfortunately, that was something that was put into our minds very early."

"The rules of just how to make sure you can come home and be safe and what you had to do unfortunately was something that was put into our minds very early," he began. ""I got stopped more times than I can count… I always fit the description. I used to finish their sentences. They'd go, 'we're stopping you because...' and I'd go, 'I fit the description. I know."

"This is something that was happening over and over again, he continued. I've had good friends that were almost killed by the police for nothing. This is not something that was new to me once all these videos started coming out, it's things that we knew very well that were happening, they just weren't being filmed," the Marvel star continued. Cheadle also mentioned that he's had "guns put to my head," in a couple of those scary moments. "This is not something that is new to me once all these videos came out."

"We were the minority there, it was very different," he added. "That's when I first—that when a lot of bullying started when I was at school and definitely predicated on race, and that's when it started to be clear that, yeah, the cops were not on Team Don and there was a different treatment."

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