One day after Marshawn Lynch decided to sit on the bench for the national anthem, Seattle’s Michael Bennett did the same.
After the game, Bennett, who has a long history of supporting Colin Kaepernick’s protest, and is writing a book titled, How to make White People Uncomfortable. Explained the reasoning for his protest to Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times.
Bennett said, “First of all I want to make sure people understand I love the military — my father was in the military. I love hot dogs like any other American. I love football like any other American. But I don’t love segregation, I don’t love riots, I don’t love oppression. I don’t love gender slander.
“I just want to see people have the equality that they deserve and I want to be able to use this platform to continuously push the message and keep finding out how unselfish we can be in society, how we can continuously love one another and understand that people are different.”
As for Bennett’s dedication to the cause he protests for, he says, “I’ve dedicated my life to this. This is what I believe in. This is my purpose. This is what I believe, to change society, to go into communities, doing organic work and just continuing to push the message that things aren’t fair.”
Bennett says he will continue to protest for the entire season.