Hollywood heartthrob Morris Chestnut has setting hearts aflame ever since he made his major celebrated cinematic debut 25 years ago in the seminal and transcendent film Boyz N the Hood opposite Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Nia Long.
Despite his enviable perch in life and illustrious career, these were far from sufficient shields against dastardly and pernicious instances of racism and racial profiling.
As Chestnut, 46, prepares for the premiere of of two major and high-profile projects, the movie The Perfect Guy and his TV weekly drama, he shares his experiences and what he has told his son about encounters with armed authorities:
“When I grew up, I was always racially profiled. I got stopped quite a bit. I graduated high school at 18 years old, and one of the neighbors down the street… a young well-to-do person, he had an old Porsche. He let my mother buy the Porsche for me. It was very inexpensive. I would drive the Porsche around, and because I was a young black male driving a Porsche, I was getting pulled over all the time. For nothing. I definitely have those experiences.”
Take a look at what he told his son about encounters with the police:
“I’ve always tried to impress upon him just to be aware of everything… the movie Straight Outta Compton… some of the same issues that [N.W.A.] had back then when they were first starting out is still relevant today obviously. I still feel that that is an issue and it’s definitely very concerning to me raising my son and hopefully having a grandson as well.”
“I always just try to make him aware of who he is and where he is,” Chestnut said. “We live in the suburbs and he has a lot of friends… black friends and white friends. I always say ‘listen, when you are somewhere with your friends who aren’t black… I always make sure he conducts himself in a very well-behaved manor. I try to make sure he’s very well-behaved and he’s respectful to authorities. I told him ‘whenever you’re stopped by the police you say ‘yes sir, no sir;’ make sure that’s first and foremost.’ I feel like that’s the first layer of defense.”
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