NFL: Bennett, Britt protest sparks debate, which is exactly what we need

Justin Britt sensed, correctly, that all eyes were on him and Michael Bennett during the national anthem at Friday’s Seahawks exhibition game at CenturyLink Field. Which was OK with him.

“That’s kind of the purpose: to make people notice you and make them not ignore it,” Britt said.

I liked what I saw — Britt, a prominent white player on the Seahawks, standing next to Bennett, an African-American star, with his hand on Bennett’s shoulders as he sat during the national anthem. And I liked what I heard afterward from Britt and Bennett — sincerity and compassion as they grappled with some heavy issues that are roiling our country.

I know, there are going to be many who reject out of hand any sullying of the anthem, viewing it as inexcusable disrespect for the institutions it represents. We’ve all seen and heard the backlash against such protests ever since Colin Kaepernick introduced the concept last season and unleashed many similar acts.

But I happen to think peaceful dissent is about as American as it gets. When the Seahawks welcomed members of the U.S. Army 1st Special Forces Group, Airborne from Joint Base Lewis-McChord at their practice this past Wednesday, soldiers expressed similar feelings.

“Me personally, we have signed up to defend our country so that we have those rights,” Chris Harper, a staff sergeant and the spokesman for the group, told The Times’ Bob Condotta. “And I have no animosity towards it. Personally, I am going to stand. But I do that for my own personal reasons, and how that person chooses to protest in their own personal way is a luxury that we have here that is not available in other parts of the planet.”

Now, more than ever, we need to have genuine, heartfelt dialogue — even if it’s not easy — about race relations, inequality, injustice and the like. Love him or loathe him, Kaepernick helped bring those issues into the forefront of public consciousness, and Bennett hopes to extend and expand those conversations.

Could he have done so without sitting for the national anthem? Perhaps, but that’s not likely to have gotten him onto CNN and other networks last week to expand on those topics. And it probably wouldn’t have led to many of the discussions and debates I suspect are happening in living rooms and around water coolers.

I don’t need to read the comments section of this column to know that this stance will outrage many people. I’ve read enough comments sections to know that. To which Bennett responded Friday night, “At this point, the backlash is just part of the message. If there wasn’t any backlash, then it wouldn’t be a problem.

“The backlash shows you that these things are important. These topics are important. As much as we can sit here and talk about things behind closed doors, these are the real issues in America. To be able to passionately go out and challenge ourselves to talk about them and go out into our communities and change societies, it’s an important thing. I think that’s something we should all continue to search for in our lives.”

The inclusion of a white player like Britt — on the heels of Philadelphia’s Chris Long joining in solidarity with teammate Malcolm Jenkins as he raised a fist during the anthem earlier in the week — adds poignancy and power to the movement. Bennett himself had put out a call for a white player to join in, one that Britt heard and heeded.

“It would take a white player to really get things changed,” Bennett had said during an appearance on ESPN. “Because when somebody from the other side understands and they step up and they speak up about it, … it would change the whole conversation. Because when you bring somebody who doesn’t have to be a part of (the) conversation making himself vulnerable in front of it, I think when that happens, things will really take a jump.”

The fact that Britt and his wife, Alicia, were troubled enough by what’s happening in the country to discuss having him join Bennett shows that he is indeed fostering some soul-searching. As Bennett said, the heinous acts in Charlottesville, Va., are a tipping point not just for football players, but for many Americans. And sports teams can be unique vessels of social change as one of the most visible examples of racial inclusivity.

To have Bennett sit during the anthem sends a message. To have Britt embracing Bennett sends a deeper one, which Britt encapsulated with a tweet he sent out Saturday:

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” — Ben Franklin.

After the game, the two words Britt kept coming back to was “getting educated.” He said he was trying to learn as much as he could about what was causing such pain in Bennett and others, recognizing that just because he wasn’t necessarily impacted personally doesn’t mean that injustice isn’t prevalent.

“I see it as something bigger than the team, bigger than this organization, bigger than football and definitely bigger than myself,” he said. “You can say it’s leadership, but I just did it because I support Mike. Being from Missouri and seeing things that are happening around the world that aren’t right, I just felt like I wanted to take a stand and be with Mike. Hopefully what I do encourages others to go out and look at it and kind of really see what is going on and not just be blind to it.”

Bennett seemed genuinely touched by Britt’s gesture. But he noted that determining the success of protests like his won’t be as easy as evaluating an athlete’s performance or the winner of a football game.

“It’s not like I can judge it by a football field and say, ‘Oh yeah, 1,000 yards, that was a great season,’ ” he said. “So it’s hard to see the impact, but the impact of anything is long term — this is a long-term fight. This isn’t anything that’s short term. It’s a very long-term thing that’s going on and being able to constantly keep doing it is the hardest part.”

A lot of people seem to be having “anthem fatigue” and yearn to keep politics out of sports. But it’s too late for that. In light of Charlottesville, I suspect these protests, as well as the displays of unity between black and white players, are only going to grow.

“To be able to have him (Britt) do that,” Bennett said, “I think it’s going to give a lot of other players courage to be able to move forward and keep trying to share that message of love and that message of unity and to be able to build that bridge. I think it’s about building that bridge to the other side and to be able to share our journey together.”

Painful as the process might be, and as uncomfortable or downright angry as it makes some people, it’s a journey worth taking.