RON AND DON

Would Seahawks’ Michael Bennett visit the White House?

Jul 28, 2017, 6:05 PM | Updated: 10:58 pm

Bennett...

Seahawks Michael Bennett and Seattle hip hop artist Draze on KIRO Radio's Ron and Don Show. (Candy Harper, MyNorthwest)

(Candy Harper, MyNorthwest)

Given his stance on many social issues, would Michael Bennett visit the White House and meet President Donald Trump if the Seahawks win the next Super Bowl?

“I’ve been to the White House before, so I don’t think I’ll be going to the White House anytime soon,” Bennett told KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don. “If we win, when we win, I will probably not go. I will probably do something else a little more organic in the community. I believe in organic leadership and getting a chance to be around people and giving them the opportunity to see what that trophy feels like.”

Bennett visited Ron and Don with Seattle hip hop artist Draze to talk about events they are hosting over the weekend — a benefit rally at 10 a.m. Saturday for Charleena Lyles at Judkins Park. Lyles was fatally shot by Seattle police after she called 911. Also, the Power Summit for minority businesses, 10 a.m. Saturday at the Seattle Art Museum. Bennett will be at both.

RELATED: Draze inspiring Seattle’s black community to open 100 new businesses

Bennett’s statement about the White House went further. He expanded to the tense issues throughout America.

“How I feel about the situation that is going on in the White House … I felt like America was getting to the point where people were getting comfortable with people being different,” he said. “Now I think they’re bringing everybody’s differences to the front line and making it not OK to be different; it’s not OK to be of Muslim decent, it’s not OK to be trans, or a different choice in your life. Those things should be acceptable in life. If somebody wants to be who they are, let them be who they are.”

“And we have a problem right now because it’s coming back up,” Bennett said. “People felt like those times were behind us and now it’s right in front of us and it’s right at the White House; people are speaking it. And how do we move past it? I feel like the people of America are coming together to get past it. You see the Women’s March, you see every type of woman out there marching. You look at Black Lives Matter, or any other kind of movement, there’s people from every kind of ethnicity that’s part of it. I think that’s the true America. It’s a place where there’s a lot of people from different cultures, there’s a lot of people from different ethnicities, and it’s different people that come together every day.”

Bennett: What makes white people uncomfortable

The conversation is not new to Bennett who is currently writing a book called “Things That Make White People Uncomfortable at Dinner.”

“It’s just a conversation about different topics like the n-word, Black Lives Matter, feminism and a bunch of different things,” Bennett said. “The inside of what I view … and the toll of racism in America and the toll of the n-word over the years. And how me, as a black man, how have I used that word, how it has been detrimental to my community and how that word has caused so much controversy over the years. The first thing I do in the book is take responsibility for my use and my accountability for using the word.”

“It’s not just about white people. I just put that into the title of the book,” he said. “It’s about all people just getting to know the other side of the tracks.”

Getting to know the “other side of the tracks” is not as accessible to some people, Bennett notes. There are many corners of America. But not every corner is the same.

“There’s not a lot of cities like Seattle where there’s this big melting pot of people; where people get to know each other and there’s people from all over the world with different cultures and backgrounds,” Bennett said. “But then you go to a place like in the middle of America where it’s just one set of people so they don’t know where you are from and they don’t know your story. So sometimes they are uncomfortable. It’s not that people are racist sometimes, they just don’t know how to talk to somebody; they don’t know how to break that comfort zone down because they’ve never been around somebody from a different ethnicity. So how do you break that barrier? How do you have a story with somebody? How do you have a conversation and push things forward?”

One way is to write a book, or to say it on the Ron and Don Show. Bennett said he would like to use his position as a football player to help that conversation along.

“It’s important to do that,” he said. “To use my platform to constantly push the boundaries of how unselfish we can be as a community, and how much can we do for each other.”

Ron and Don

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Would Seahawks’ Michael Bennett visit the White House?