Thinking through an intersectional lens, I supported the Women’s March after Trump was elected. Several months later, I put out a written statement in solidarity with the Women’s Strike for Equality on International Women’s Day, in March 2017.
As a black man in America, I sometimes get overwhelmed and discouraged by what I see—from the police killings of unarmed black men to the unequal educational system to the mass incarceration of poor people of color in for-profit prisons. But when I look in my daughters’ eyes, I see the courage of Harriet Tubman, the patience of Rosa Parks, the soul of Ida B. Wells, the passion of Fannie Lou Hamer, and the heart of Angela Davis. I see the future. I see hope. And I’m inspired because it will be women who lead the future. That is why I am writing to express my unconditional solidarity with the women’s strike on International Women’s Day, March 8. It would be easy for me to say that I am supporting this day of resistance because I have three daughters and I want nothing to stand in their way as they attempt to achieve their goals. I could also say that I am doing this because my wife, Pele—my best friend and soulmate—is of Samoan descent and has lived the struggle of being a woman and the daughter of immigrants. But this issue is a lot bigger than my dreams for my own family. It’s about the women across the earth who are suffering: women who are less worried about a glass ceiling than they are about a collapsing floor. It’s about women of color across the earth who live on less than one dollar a day. It’s about all women who are subject to sexual assault and violence. I stand with the women’s strike because I agree with the unity statement from the strike’s platform, which reads that this day is “organized by and for women who have been marginalized and silenced by decades of neoliberalism directed towards working women, women of color, Native women, disabled women, immigrant women, Muslim women, lesbian, queer and trans women.” I encourage my fellow football players to join me in standing with these brave women from across the world. As Angela Davis once said, “To understand how any society functions you must understand the relationship between the men and the women.” By that metric, our society is failing. We need change, and to quote Frederick Douglass, “If there is no struggle there is no progress.”
Sincerely,
Michael Bennett
I had been doing work on women’s issues, but this was my opportunity to make that bridge between philanthropy and activism. I was buzzing with it, doing my best impression of Sojourner Truth, saying, “This is the time for women. A day that men have to stand up and speak the truth for women.” I posted this letter online because I wanted women to know there are men out there supporting the women’s movement. I can see through my daughters’ eyes just how many obstacles girls and women face. Their brains, their achievements, their creativity, and their place in society can be cut down, and it’s not like we have legions of smart men making the world a better place. We need all hands on deck.
Not only am I willing to say that I support women—the definition of all talk—but I’m also going to help create more programs for women and girls and collaborate with great women who are already doing amazing things. In New York City I spoke out for a group that provides support for survivors of domestic violence. One of my friends was killed by her partner, and it haunts me. At their conference, I talked about facts we can’t deny: that domestic abuse is more widespread than we admit, and too many of us act like bystanders, turning the other way, deciding not to get involved, which sends the message that it’s not our problem.
Football has a lot of work to do when it comes to changing this culture that tolerates violence against women. I work in an environment where women are constantly being downplayed, and people don’t even realize it. It’s unconscious. The things that we say, the things that we do, send a message. The NFL sends a message that women don’t matter with the way that, for years, it has ignored the issue of violence against women by players. The NFL also sends a message through how the league markets itself to the general public. We’re stuck in a 1950s mind-set. The message is that a woman is only important as a cheerleader or, at most, a sideline reporter. We do this even though women make up almost half the NFL’s fan base.
For a month we players dress in pink for breast cancer awareness, but we do nothing for awareness about sexism or domestic violence. It’s as if the sexism baked into the league is more important than the financial benefits that could be gained by treating our female fans with the respect they deserve. I need to do this work in the outside world, but I also need to push where I stand as well.
This is where my daughters come into the picture. Any struggle I take part in on their behalf is my way of paying them back for how they have changed my life. They have allowed me to evolve in a way that I think most football players never get to experience.
By the time most players are retired, they don’t know how to
