Actor, Boxer Organizes Protest for Manhattan Beach Pier Saturday

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — Access to dance, drama, the performing arts. The youngster in Macon, GA had it and credits that access with making him aware of the acting world and his desire to be in it. This Saturday, the Manhattan Beach business owner, actor and boxer will share his story and what it's like to be black when his foundation BMoved hosts the "Unite for Equality" protest at the base of the Manhattan Beach Pier at 11 a.m.

Cedric Jones, 42, who owns Beastie Gym in MB and is a trainer with Olympic athletic credentials, told MB Patch the event is about love and unity. "We're not against white people or police. What we're against is police brutality and racism."

Jones, who founded BMoved a few years ago after realizing what access to the arts and sports can do for kids to open their eyes to a world beyond their neighborhood, wants to create access for the kids he's helping in his neighborhood of Compton and South Los Angeles. He knows that having access to being able to play volleyball or get in a swimming pool would benefit kids living in these areas. And he seems to have a knack for drawing others to him and helping them out.

When it comes to protests, he doesn't approve of the looting that's accompanied protests in the aftermath of George Floyd's death. But to remain silent isn't an option and shouldn't be for people of other races either, he said. "Why do I [or George Floyd] have to lose my life for people to see what's been going on for years?" he asked. "Now that there's video of police brutality and racism, people see what's really going on. But why didn't they just accept what we [black people] were saying for all these years? At what point are we heard? At what point do people believe what we've been telling them?"

Jones himself is no stranger to racism. He's felt the pain and fear of being pulled over by police no matter what kind of car he's driving: a Porsche, a motorcycle, an old VW. He's been stopped while out running, too. "People will say, 'Well, you must've been speeding. Did you get a ticket?' And I tell them I wasn't speeding and the officers didn't issue me a ticket. I wasn't doing anything wrong.

"I want to live the American Dream. I want my kids to wake up in the morning and not worry about something happening to their dad because of his skin color. I don't want to be hoping I won't get pulled over [by police] and hoping I go home tonight. Look, we just want equal rights. Let us matter," he said. "It's one of the most basic things you can ask for. We want to be heard. We want to matter. If we all come together and unify, we can make changes happen. Let's just come together."

Jones, who came to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of acting, has had movie roles in "Marshall County," (2013), "Southpaw" (2015), "The Magnificent Seven" (2016) and "Princess of the Row" (2019) and acted with Jake Gyllenhall, Martin Sheen, Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington. And he's still reaching to hit his goal of being an actor.

But in the meantime, as he auditions and finds roles, his livelihood is as a trainer at his MB gym, Beastie, which became his in a pretty unbelievable way. He was working part-time at the gym as a trainer when the owner said he was closing it down and would Jones and a manager at the gym want to own it. They, of course, went for it. Now, Jones is the sole owner but he recalls with pain how customers would choose to address his white partner over him, even as the two stood next to each other behind a desk. He just went with the flow, not wanting to offend customers. "I've always treated people right and fairly. People live in a bubble. It's not their fault."

At Beastie, Jones puts to use his attitude and skills. Early in Los Angeles, after being homeless for a year, he wound up at a boxing gym in Pasadena where the owner let him box for free. Jones had a way with boxing and quickly found himself in the Olympic trials in Colorado, ranked No. 3 in the world, he said. But he soon realized acting was his passion and left the boxing world behind.

Earlier in young adulthood he'd made a similar decision. After living in Atlanta where he attended acting school, he decided to be "bold," packing up and moving to California with just $2,000. He calls the move "ignorant" and when he couldn't pay his rent, found himself homeless and living on the streets of the San Fernando Valley. He calls himself "blessed," too. A coach took him in, he met other people through his coach, and that led to him moving in with some other folks. When he was homeless, he noted that a "lady on the street" gave him an opportunity to work for her temp agency.

"I've always made really big decisions to be what I want to be," he told Patch. After working for Beach Body Fitness for 8 years, he realized he had an extensive portfolio in fitness. He'd created programs there and obviously knew how to train to be a boxer. So when his he'd been laid off from Beach Body and his wife said, "Why don't you just train?" the seed was planted. He began training two friends and that grew into 15 people, then 20.

Jones noted how blacks have been protesting about racism and brutality for decades. "We've been protesting for so long," he told Patch, pointing out protests in 1965, 1972, and 1992. "We're passionate about it. And we're literally tired about it. Our generational stories get passed down. We grow up hearing them. I just want to live knowing that I can come back to my wife and kids."

To that end, he doesn't blame people for not knowing what they don't know. His attitude is "I don't fault you but I do for not accepting what we've been telling you. I told you I was hurt. You don't have to see proof. You don't have to see bruises. You just need to accept what I am saying."

Racism, he said, "has been taught. It's been handed down." He noted that when people of all colors don't speak up against racism, you "agree with slavery and racism." He also said, "You can't be held accountable for what was done generations ago, though. I just want to bring some awareness to racism. Anybody who can take action, can make change."

For Jones, Beastie's slogan, "Determined. Relentless. Unstoppable." is his life. He believes you have to figure out what you want to do in life and be determined to do it. But then it gets hard and you have to be relentless. Then something else is going to happen and it may get even harder to attain your goal. That's when you have to be unstoppable. "It's your fault if you give up," he told Patch. "No matter how hard it is, you can do it. No matter how bad it is, and you're down to the last minute, you have to know you're going to be alright.

"Effort has no prejudice. Sweat has no prejudice," he said. "You can make up an excuse. All I ask you to do is the work," said the man whose mission is to "highly motivate people" and "bring community together."

"We as people should come together," he said of the current climate of protests, "for a united front and say to ourselves, 'The most important thing I have to realize is this: I didn't realize what you were going through.' But after you hear us, what are you going to do about it? We need you to step up for us. We have a chance to win. We've been fighting and they're not listening to us but now we're moving in the right direction and moving to the finish line together. What I don't want to lose is momentum. For once people are recognizing that police brutality and racism might be a real issue. They've seen the video [of George Floyd]. I don't want to lose focus on what the mission is. We need to ask ourselves what we can do differently to make change happen, whether it's voting or something else or more than one thing. It's our fight together."

For Jones, COVID-19 has meant no auditions and his gym is closed. Finances are tight but he perseveres, just like he's always done. "Karma is real. God is real. I believe He blesses those who do right." As with many situations in is life, his BMoved Foundation was the result of him helping out neighborhood kids when he could. He wants to build "our own facility, educational" to serve kids in Compton and South Central. He wants it to offer "everything those kids don't get. Volleyball, a swimming pool. Let's give these kids a place they want to be," he said. "Let's get 95% of them going to college."

This Saturday, Jones will meet runners at his Beastie Gym at 2317 North Sepulveda Boulevard at 10:15 a.m. and they will run to the Manhattan Beach Pier. There, at around 11 a.m., the runners will join others who have gathered for the protest. Jones has no idea how many people will turn up. But his focus is on love and unity and being heard. "I'm expressing love," he told Patch. "We can all address this in a loving way. We [blacks] have done it [been protesting] for so long and no one has been addressing the biggest elephant in the room, which is racism. It's why police brutality happens. Do you know how many people this [police brutality] may have happened to? I feel a need to do this. But we can help each other."