NFL defensive lineman Michael Bennett wrote in the Preface [even if you don’t read the entire book, this very enlightening Preface should at least be read by almost everyone] of this 2018 book, “It was our first preseason game in 2017… I was thinking about American Nazis marching in Charlottesville and the young woman who was killed. I was also thinking about Charleena Lyles… who called Seattle police for help and they shot her to death… I was thinking about my friend Colin Kaepernick, denied a job in the National Football League because of his protests against racism and police violence… I was thinking about the gap between what we are taught the flag represents and the lived experience of too many people… and as the anthem started to play, I sat down. There was no way I could stand for the national anthem… until I saw this country take steps toward common decency. By not standing, I wanted to … challenge us to try to reach those goals. I wanted to use my platform to inspire young people to see us not just as athletes or pitchmen for products, such as changemakers.” (Pg. xvii-xviii)
He continues, “As NFL players, we cannot be silent anymore just because we have the ability to hide behind our helmets… I can’t hide behind the glamour and glitz of football and fame. The reality is that I’m a Black man in America and I’m going to be a Black men in America long after I’m out of this league… So I sat during the anthem and the hate came in, as sure as night follows day… the fact that it made people angry, uncomfortable, and even hateful was proof that I was right to make a stand and take a seat… if no one cared, then I would have been wasting everyone’s time. Of all the responses, what bothered me most was when people said I was dishonoring the military… It bothered me because my father was in the military… I want to use this platform to reach people, to encourage us to see how unselfish we can be.” (Pg. xviii-xix)
He goes on, “Then on Sunday, September 24: history. It was the first time the national media had covered the anthem actions, and the protests hit every single team… The previous Sunday, nine of us players had protested during the anthem. Now we were talking 180 to 200 people… It was a league standing together to say that we were not going to be treated like this. More than for any issue for which we had knelt before, now the protests were also about self-respect… “ He continues, “Every [football] contest felt overshadowed. It was the first time in this country that sports operated on this elevated level, with everybody watching what we were going to do politically. That’s never really happened before. Ever. It wasn’t perfect. There is no doubt that the original message of protesting racism n the criminal justice system, and showing solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, got a little lost. How could it not? Yet I think we just have to keep pushing forward.” (Pg. xxiii-xxiv, xxvii)
He acknowledges, “I’m going to be judged by strangers on the core of who I am, and, yes, that makes me vulnerable and it can even feel terrifying. Nobody wants to lose his job like Kaepernick and risk becoming another former NFL player who ends up broke. But if the price of employment is silence… I just can’t do it anymore.” (Pg. xxxiii) He adds, “Whether I die tomorrow or in sixty years, if the only things about me that people talk about are the Pro Bowls and Super Bowl appearances, I will have failed. I want my legacy to be what I did in the community and the positive changes this work might have created in people’s lives… Records are made to be broken, but the legacy you leave can’t be broken because it’s the truth.” (Pg. xxxvii) “[This book] might make you uncomfortable, but… a lot of what’s in here makes me uncomfortable… I hope this book makes you laugh and makes you think…” (Pg. xxxviii)
He points out, “we need to speak about the price we [young people] pay for these [NCAA/NFL] dreams… in terms of trying to have an NFL career and failing---which happens to 99 percent of college players. We need to talk about how this can result in chronic pain, depression, brain injury, and a lifetime of hurt… Too many of my high school and college teammates have ended up with what can only be described as … posttraumatic stress disorder.” (Pg. 20) He adds, “And there is no incentive or reason for the NCAA to try to help, because they are out for the buck and they don’t take prisoners. Fans of college sports need to know this.” (Pg. 23)
He notes, “The real devil in this league is the pain… There are the hip surgeries, the knee surgeries, and the daily fear that you could just lose your brain… The word ‘concussion’ softens what the injury really it. What we are talking about is a traumatic brain injury… it’s a bruise on your brain that never gets time to heal… we are pushed to do it by … that voice in our heads that tells us we don’t have guaranteed contracts and this can all go away if we can’t make it onto that field… Fans don’t see this. Fantasy football isn’t just a game they play on a computer.” (Pg. 41-42) Later, he adds, “Your money is tied to walking the line… You are not allowed to be successful unless you wear the mask.” (Pg. 49-50)
He observes, “cannabis can lessen the after-effects of some of the head trauma, and you won’t need rehab with it’s time to stop. It seems cruel to deny that to players… It also helps players sleep after games, to unwind without pills, sleeping medication, or muscle relaxants. This is why easily 50 percent of players smoke weed… some of the greatest ideas have been sparked by marijuana. You can’t tell me ‘Star Wars’ didn’t come from marijuana.” (Pg. 53-54)
Of the aftermath of his anthem protests, he notes, “I can’t tell you how emotional it was for me when Justin Britt, our offensive lineman and … a white dude from Lebanon, Missouri, put his hand on my shoulder while I sat during the anthem during the preseason of 2017… He even told the press that is he didn’t see things getting better in this country, he’d sit with me. That’s a brother.” (Pg. 78) “My brother is also Steven Hauschka, our former kicker… Hauschka is a really cool dude… they are both my brothers. They have taught me that there are times when race doesn’t play a part in our interpersonal relations, and we all just become spiritual. People are friends simply because they have the same moral code… My white brothers are important to everything that we do, especially in confronting racism and what divides us. I want them standing with me, as Hauschka did when he was on the team and as Britt did on the sideline.” (Pg. 82)
He explains, “at the end of the day, I’m a Black man… my soul is still in the community… That’s why Black Lives Matter is not just a slogan or a hashtag to me. It’s a call to action.” (Pg. 119) He adds, “We can’t go back. Let’s tear these [Confederate] monuments down, along with the word that gives them life. To me this is what Black Lives Matter is all about---a movement to claim our humanity in a country that would deny it.” (Pg. 131) He concludes, “the Black Lives Matter movement … helps people to realize their worth… It’s about resisting the ‘New Jim Crow,’ a social system that has created a parallel, separate, and unequal America, defined by mass incarceration, unemployment, and substandard food and education.” (Pg. 144)
Of the infamous 2017 incident at the Las Vegas casino, he recounts, “I heard someone shout, ‘Gunshots!... Shots fired!’ There was a stampede to the door… Then the police stormed in and yelled for people to evacuate the building. You didn’t have to tell me twice, and I ran… As I was scrambling to safety, police pursued me and forced me to the ground. They cuffed me, as I lay on my stomach, and put a weapon to the back of my head. An officer said if I moved he would ‘blow [my] f_____ head off.’ At the same time another officer jammed his knee in my back and clinched the handcuffs on my so tightly my fingers went numb… The arresting officer turned off his body camera before he did this, for reasons that have yet to be explained to me… After I’d sat in the police car… the officers, at my insistence, Googled my name and saw that I was in fact a famous football player… and they let me go. What if I weren’t famous? How would my night have ended?” (Pg. 149-150)
There is a LOT more to this challenging and thought-provoking book (e.g., he likes Bernie Sanders, he strongly supports Women’s Rights, etc.). It will be “must reading” for people concerned with issues of social justice… and, of course, pro football.
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Customer reviews
Uncomfortable? Nah. But there is some good stuff here.
Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2021
Being biracial (but apparently I look white), my white sense is tingling. It’s telling me “Here we go again. A book about all of us white folks. This time we’re uncomfortable.”My black sense is tingling. It’s just embarrassed.Let’s see how I feel at the end of the book.At about page 9, Mr. Bennett says, “Black people built this country.” Sorry, my dude, but that isn’t entirely true. Do you really think my poor as dirt white ancestors were just reclining on cushions and being fed peeled grapes by slaves? What about all of the rest of our poor and middle class white ancestors, most of whom didn’t own slaves, or even want to? Didn’t they work? Didn’t they help build America? Of course they did.My white ancestors worked in the lead mines of Missouri and Oklahoma and died in their 40s and 50s from miner’s TB. Those were the lucky ones. And what about the Chinese Americans who came here to mine and build railroads? And don’t forget the Native Americans who were already running things before we all showed up.So I’ve got all the way to page 121 without being uncomfortable. I guess I was bored by a lot of the sports stuff, which I must admit I just skimmed and scanned. Well, here we are at the N word. I’m not uncomfortable, but I have never liked that word. To be honest, I’ve heard dozens—hundreds?—of black people say it. I heard it all the time when I lived in Harlem, 147th Street. I’ve only ever heard one other person use it in the context of aiming it at someone, and he was Filipino. I don’t like words that dehumanize people. Black people DO make me feel uncomfortable when they use that word every other word.I’m relieved that Mr. Bennett wants this word to die (page 122). Good on him.AND NOW! Mr. Bennett, you have surprised the heck out of me. Pages 133-134: “As you look at these names, please know that these are people from every racial background. Although black people are disproportionately killed by police, this violence affects white people and brown people of every ethnicity. I believe that we never hear about many of these cases because if police violence is painted exclusively as “a Black problem,” then it’s easier to keep us divided and for the violence to continue without consequence. Also as you bear witness to these names, know that the uniting feature among almost all of these people, beyond their shared humanity, is that they aren’t rich. They’re people struggling to get by.”This man hit the nail on the head!I’m not uncomfortable. I’m warming up to you, Mr. Bennett. We’re not eye to eye on everything, but we need not be. I see that Michael Bennett is not a racial demagogue or a trifling wokester. He is a man with his own mind, and I like that.We’re not gonna agree about Black Lives Matter, or how “white lives matter is a given,” page 145. Sometimes, viewing all the data, I feel like a lot of black people must not care about their own lives. So much wasted potential, and nobody is holding them back. They have possibilities that their cousins in the Third World could never dream of, yet they are more likely to drop out of school, have babies out of wedlock, and a list of other self-created roadblocks.So, at the end of the book, I’m feeling like I didn’t completely waste my time, because I got to see a different perspective than in all the other current “white people” books, but I’m also feeling like I didn’t learn much. I didn’t learn what makes white people uncomfortable. Who chose the title? It’s meant to be provocative, but the book didn’t deliver.If I could rename this book, I’d call it “Opinions and Feelings: White People, Like ‘Em or Lump ‘Em.”
Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2021
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Laurence
Role Modelling for Athletes to be Catalysts for Social Change
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 6, 2018
