Michael Bennett is no longer a Seattle Seahawks pass rusher (he's been traded to Philadelphia), but social justice warriors in the Emerald City still revere him as the inventor of the athlete activist role and a new kind of hero. Seattle's NPR station KUOW was the perfect progressive forum for an interview that local teacher and SJW Jesse Hagopian conducted with Bennett in a Town Hall last month.
During the interview, Hagopian mentions a social justice group named Athletes for Impact (A4I) because Bennett is literally the face of the organization. The group was formed in 2016 "to provide a platform for athlete activism" on the issues of Black Lives Matter, police violence, the economy, LGBTQ and equal rights, climate change, education, immigration and mass incarceration.
When asked about the NFL's new policy calling for players to respect the national anthem or stay in the clubhouse, Bennett took off on a rant only an SJW can appreciate:
"It's really about community and that’s what we're trying to do within the context of the NFL policy ... To try and make sure the NFL represents all the people that love their team, you know, the brown people need a voice, the women need a voice, the Asian people need a voice, the black people need a voice, everybody needs a voice when it comes to this, and we also owe it to if kids don’t have books in their school … We should step up and make sure that all kids in Seattle eat."
Bennett's idea of activism transcends what football fans want to see on Sundays:
"You run that ball and be quiet. The fans are thinking 'I had a long-ass week and need to see the Seahawks have a win.' … I have great athletes ahead of me like Harry Edwards, Craig Hodges, John Carlos, Muhammad Ali. And LeBron James has everything to lose but still speaks on social issues. … We can’t be silent about issues ... . We are really supposed to speak out for those that don’t have a voice … ."
During the Q&A, an unknown speaker told Bennett, "You have reinvented the role of an activist athlete. It’s a whole new idea of heroism."
The interview would not have been complete without the obligatory attack on the Trump Administration. Bennett dismissed the views of Trump and millions of football fans that protesting players were dissing the flag, anthem and vets. Hagopian said, "The media tries to paint it, and Trump tries to paint it, as protesting the flag," but "the person that wrote the anthem was celebrating the killing of black slaves."
For Bennett, "When it comes to Trump it was propaganda," and "they try to divide the message. … The true message was equality and freedom for every single person on this planet."
Among other interview topics also covered in Bennett's new book Things that Make White People Uncomfortable:
Feminism: Bennett praised both Harriet Tubman and the communist Angela Davis for standing up. "We have to be able to speak our voice for women, for their issues or they gonna lose their voice. ... Women can be an important part (of the NFL), as general managers. And for us to have our true voice we need women to have their true voice. The NFL has a lot of work to do so everyone can have a fair shot to do what they love." (No mention of Bennett's upcoming August arraignment for brutishly injuring a little old lady in Houston.)
The n-word: Bennett admitted he "played a pivotal part in sharing it in ways I shouldn’t a shared it … . It was a normal word like 'pass the peas.' Having used that word in the ways I did is a slap in my ancestors’ faces. I apologized to them."
Chris Matthews could not have taken a better wave-off of this than Hagopian's response to that hypocrisy. "You’ve brought perspective to the history of that word," he gushed.
Bennett's faith and "how the Bible is being twisted to support the immigrant child separation issue," according to Hagopian's question: "Like I said, it’s propaganda. The people wanna find a way to make what they're doing feel good. The Bible doesn’t have to tell us what is happening is wrong. You see it with your eyes, it doesn’t take a book to recognize that."
The last question taken from the audience indicated the mood of progressives in a nation without Hillary Clinton leading it: "How do you keep from being overwhelmed by all the shitty stuff in the world?" Bennett answered, "Finding balance between sorrow and sadness in the world. So much shit is happening it's hard to find joy."
