very good read!
Trump called him 'my African-American.' His life hasn't been the same since
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/12/politics/trump-my-african-american-cheadle-rally-blake/index.html
f Gregory Cheadle had not cracked a joke, his life would be a lot less complicated today.
His troubles began when he attended a rally by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in Redding, California, in June 2016. Cheadle was a California congressional candidate at the time, and he stood out as a Black Republican.
As Cheadle watched from the VIP section of the overwhelmingly white crowd, Trump went into an extended riff about a Black supporter who had assaulted an anti-Trump protester at an Arizona rally. Trump wondered aloud where his supporter was when Cheadle decided to play along and shouted, "I'm here!"
"Oh, look at my African-American over here," Trump responded with a smile, pointing at Cheadle as some people in the crowd cheered. "Look at him. Are you the greatest?"
Cheadle says he has since lost respect for some Black Republican conservatives. He compares them to ventriloquists' dolls -- puppets employed by powerful white people to mouth political platitudes that hurt Black people.
He also says he was deflated by how the Republican party reacted to the death of Herman Cain, a former Republican presidential candidate. Cain, who was Black, died after contracting coronavirus soon after attending a Trump rally without wearing a mask.