What Gives Michael Bennett Hope? Young People’s Power

Credit: Joe Robbins / Stringer

Michael Bennett has plenty to say. The “activist disguised as a football player” has been one of the most outspoken advocates for racial justice and intersectional causes. He penned a bestselling memoir centered on social justice and, as a proud feminist, wrote a widely-read essay supporting the women’s strike. This month he’s helping lead a march for affirmative action.

But in my conversation with the Super Bowl champ and three-time Pro Bowler, Bennett spoke less about what he does with his voice, and more about what he does with his silence.

“One of the things that really...changed my life was going to South Dakota and being on those reservations,” he says, “and really understanding the story of what they've been through and not talking and just listening.”

As The Undefeated reported, Bennett had traveled 20 hours from his then-home Seattle to a Sioux reservation in Lower Brule, South Dakota as part of the Bennett Foundation’s free sports camps and nutrition training for kids in underserved areas. Bennett says his work is just as much about his learning as it is about his teaching.

“I’ve been able to sit back...and say, ‘I don’t understand what you’re going through. So show me,’” he says.

“And that’s really how you have a voice. You learn to have compassion and you learn to have empathy for people around you.”

Bennett signed with the New England Patriots this offseason, his fourth team in 10 seasons. Football has taken him around the country; humanitarian work has taken him around the world. During the summer of 2018, The Bennett Foundation launched an academy in Senegal, in partnership with iamtheCODE, an African-led movement focused on STEAM education. True to form, Bennett received an education too.

“I was sitting there and I was talking to the girls and...they were going through so much...some girls were getting raped,” he recalls. “One girl looked me in the eyes and with tears in her eyes she said, ‘I want to be a police officer so I can make sure that women are safe at night.’”

“And for me I saw the resilience of people...no matter how far they've been kicked down, people are willing to survive,” Bennett continued. “I think that's what I take most from all these kids is that regardless of what happens to them, they still find a sense of humanity and they still find a sense of hope. They still find a sense of strength.”

Bennett has dedicated himself to helping young people find that strength, both physically and otherwise. Beyond his youth sports and nutrition camps, he’s established a gardening program at Seattle’s King County Juvenile Detention Center. He’s given his daughters their own platform, co-authoring a children’s book with the three of them and his wife, Pele, and overseeing an Instagram account where the girls curate a virtual book club. He says he’s especially proud of his free Women’s Empowerment Summit for teenagers, where he’s found himself on the giving and receiving end of inspiration.

“I think these kids are so fearless these days," he says. "They're not scared to say a lot of things that are happening around them. I look up to that.”

Where can young people learn and share their voice? Bennett suggests starting online.

“I think young people understanding that they have this connectivity and what they can do with it is your first step to power,” Bennett says. “[On these platforms] you're saying what you're feeling, you're saying the things that need to be said, you're not scared.”

“Because you have a voice and our voices matter,” he continues. “You know, it might not be a thousand people, it might not be 20,000 people, but it might be one person and it only takes one person to change the world.”