It’s not comfortable to see people in Flint, Michigan, without clean water. It’s not comfortable to see Philando Castile’s murder at the hands of police, live-streamed on Facebook. It’s not comfortable to hear gymnasts tell their stories of being sexually assaulted. It’s not comfortable to talk about CTE. It’s not comfortable seeing kids too tired to move. But the ultimate question is, What are you going to do? Are you going to lay it on the line? Are you going to be a changemaker? Remember what John Carlos said: “There is no partial commitment to justice. You are either in or you’re out.” Trust me: if you’re willing to be uncomfortable, you will also feel blessed, if you can see it through and make it to the other side.
AFTERWORD: GET COMFORTABLE
I was out with the kids, and we met a dude on the beach. He was a Latino guy from Portland, and he was flying a kite. He saw me with my daughters and asked, “You guys like kites?”
I asked him, “How much did that kite cost?”
He said, “Oh, about ten dollars from Costco.”
I said, “I wanna get a kite.”
He replied, “Hold on. I have two kites. Take one. But first, let me show you how to fly mine.”
He demonstrated how to do it. Then I let my daughters take turns, but we ended up tangling it all up. It was a mess. Most people would have said, “I let you use my kite and you tangled that shit up. What is your problem?”
Instead, he just smiled and told me, “You know what, I got kids too. Kids can mess stuff up, but it’s about the experience, man, and it’s cool that your kids got to play with the kite. It’s just part of learning, brother.”
I was like, “Man, take my number. If you’re ever on the other side of town, call me.”
He didn’t know I played in the NFL or nothing. When I asked him, he didn’t know a Seahawk from a mountain lion. He was just a cool person, and that’s the kind of people you meet along the way in life. There’s a whole bunch of great people out there, and when you let yourself be vulnerable, not build walls between yourself and others, you can make change. You have to open yourself up and get comfortable with your discomfort. Then you don’t need to build more walls. Instead, they just come tumbling down.
ABOUT HAYMARKET BOOKS
Haymarket Books is a radical, independent, nonprofit book publisher based in Chicago. Our mission is to publish books that contribute to struggles for social and economic justice. We strive to make our books a vibrant and organic part of social movements and the education and development of a critical, engaged, international left.
We take inspiration and courage from our namesakes, the Haymarket martyrs, who gave their lives fighting for a better world. Their 1886 struggle for the eight-hour day—which gave us May Day, the international workers’ holiday—reminds workers around the world that ordinary people can organize and struggle for their own liberation. These struggles continue today across the globe—struggles against oppression, exploitation, poverty, and war.
Since our founding in 2001, Haymarket Books has published more than five hundred titles. Radically independent, we seek to drive a wedge into the risk-averse world of corporate book publishing. Our authors include Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Rebecca Solnit, Angela Davis, Howard Zinn, Amy Goodman, Wallace Shawn, Mike Davis, Winona LaDuke, Ilan Pappé, Richard Wolff, Dave Zirin, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Nick Turse, Dahr Jamail, David Barsamian, Elizabeth Laird, Amira Hass, Mark Steel, Avi Lewis, Naomi Klein, and Neil Davidson. We are also the trade publishers of the acclaimed Historical Materialism Book Series and of Dispatch Books.
Also available from Haymarket Books
Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup,
The Olympics, and the Struggle for Democracy
Dave Zirin
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment
That Changed the World
John Wesley Carlos and Dave Zirin,
foreword by Cornel West
Long Shot: The Triumphs and Struggles
of an NBA Freedom Fighter
Rory Fanning and Craig Hodges,
foreword by Dave Zirin
What’s My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance
in the United States
Dave Zirin
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Michael Bennett is a three-time Pro Bowler, Pro Bowl MVP, Super Bowl Champion, and two-time NFC Champion. He has gained international recognition for his public support for the Black Lives Matter movement, women’s rights, and other social justice causes. In 2017, he was named one of the 100 Most Influential African Americans by The Root, was the Seattle Seahawks nominee for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award, and was honored, along with his brother Martellus, with a BET Shine a Light award for exceptional service.
He is the cofounder with Pele Bennett of The Bennett Foundation, which educates underserved children and communities through free, accessible programming. He has held free camps and health clinics in Seattle; in his hometown of Houston; in his current offseason home, Honolulu; and in South Dakota on the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe.
He donates all of his endorsement money and the proceeds from his jersey sales to fund health and education projects for poor and underserved youth and minority communities, and recently expanded his reach globally to support STEM programming in Africa.
He is the proud father of three daughters, Peyton, Blake, and Ollie.
Dave Zirin is the sports editor for the Nation and the author of several books, most recently Jim Brown: Last Man Standing. Zirin is a frequent guest on MSNBC, ESPN, and Democracy Now! He hosts WPFW’s The Collision with Etan Thomas and the Edge of Sports podcast.
Martellus Bennett is the younger brother of Michael Bennett. When he’s not singing Michael’s praises, he’s creating awesomeness at his multimedia company, The Imagination Agency, and making the NFL
