Of Authors and Athletes; Black Boy Fly

Martellus Bennett, an NFL tight-end, has had a success riddled and critic silencing career since entering into the National Football League.
After the black community was shaken by the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, Bennett made it known however that more was on his mind regarding the topic of black people in America than there was with him winning his first Super Bowl, which he eventually did in 2016 with the Patriots.
The result of Bennett’s feelings on the matter was a poem that he wrote that was featured in The Players’ Tribune.
“We must lace up our shoes to do more than run another sprint, dunk another ball, or rap another lyric. We must lace our shoes and run toward freedom….cheering on those on their way to the finish line,” wrote Bennett in his original letter/poem.
“I just felt like I needed to write something for the black kids who had to see or are witnessing these things,” said Bennett on his reasons for writing and putting out his letter in The Players’ Tribune. “[When we were growing up], we didn’t have access to as many things that were happening in the world. Now you see all these things.”
Two years later, Bennett along with his publishing agency, the Imagination Agency, released Bennett’s original writing as a book under the title, “Dear Black Boy.” In his book, Bennett gives tips and encouragement to the young audience to not be afraid of stepping outside of cultural and societal norms in order to achieve their dreams.
In an interview with The Root, Bennett spoke on the percentages of black people in the NBA and NFL, who are the majority by far in whichever metrics you would choose to look at. With more than half of the NFL and NBA being black, but with less than 7% black people in the technology industry, Bennett spoke on his desire for black children to aim higher than a career in professional sports.
“We don’t have a lot of stories that are just for us, that are ours, that we can relate to,” said Bennett in regards to the lack of representation black people have in non-athletic and entertainment industries.
“We can be so much more than athletes and rappers. It’s refreshing to see people who have voices in our community using them the way [Bennett] is,” said Joshua Williams, a therapeutic recreations major from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
In Bennett’s case, starting his own publishing and entertainment company, Imagination Agency, were the steps he wanted to take in 2014 in order to make his post-football dreams for himself come true.
“There’s no one to champion creativity for black youth as far as films and animation, and there’s nothing wrong with focusing on it,” said Bennett.
While Bennett knows that he cannot achieve such a broad goal of changing how young black kids approach their futures, he is confident that if he can inspire the generations after him to be writers and creators, then they’ll be the ones to ultimately, “change it for us all.”