Saints tight end Ben Watson expounded Thursday on his Ferguson, MO comments from a year ago where he wrote that he was “embarrassed” about how fellow African-Americans, because of the looting, violent protests and law breaking from incidents such as Mike Brown’s death, “only confirm” and “validate” the “stereotypes” and “inferior treatment.”
Watson, whose book “Under Our Skin” speaks on racial divide and bringing the races together, said on ESPN Radio’s “Dan Le Batard Show” said that he himself battles with “prejudices and biases and assumptions” about white people, which he knows is “not right.” He added that the way to deal with racism from either side is “through the blood of Christ.”
“My experiences being a black man consists of the things that I have gone through, the things that my parents have gone through and even my grandparents have gone through. We have generational experiences, all of us do, that kind of form our world view. And so my side is based on that. But my side is also saying, ‘You know what? I am guilty of some of the things that I point my finger at other people.’ In the book ‘Under Our Skin,’ I talk about the fact that I have prejudice and bias and assumptions about white people when I see them and that’s not right. That’s not correct, the same way I wouldn’t want that done about me.”
He continued, “It’s important to see at the bottom line level we all have an issue of sin and that is what feeds into this racism and that is something that we have to deal with and that can only be done through the blood of Christ. So ultimately I am saying that there is hope for this racism thing. There is ultimate hope, but it’s not going to be from us getting together. It’s gotta be the power beyond us to get this thing right.”
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