Exclusive Interview With Benjamin Watson
BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You know, you've been watching. We've been reporting this week on the reaction to the grand jury's decision to not indict police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown. But there's this essay, it is making the rounds online that's resonating with hundreds of thousands of people. More than 750,000 people have given it thumbs up on facebook and that's just facebook. Almost half a million have shared with it friends. It details one man's very real, very candid range of emotions about what happened in Ferguson. The man who wrote this essay joins me now. He's NFL player of the New Orleans Saints tight end Mr. Benjamin Watson. Benjamin Watson, it is truly an honor and a plea sure to have you on.</s>BENJAMIN WATSON, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS PLAYER: Thank you. It's an honor to be here, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: So you and I were chatting a little bit this week about your piece and an asked you because it's much more poignant coming from you than from me, two of your favorite paragraphs, can you read those for me?</s>WATSON: Yes. I will. Luckily I have my iphone.</s>BALDWIN: Thank you.</s>WATSON: I want to read about being an introspective. The first one is I'm introspective because sometimes I want to take our side without looking at the facts in situations like these. Sometimes I feel like it's us against them. Sometimes I'm just as prejudice as people I point fingers at and that's not right. How can I look at white skin and make assumptions but not want assumptions about me. That's not right. I'll go down and the second paragraph that I think kind of struck a chord with me was the last paragraph of the piece. And it is kind of how I closed it up, kind of on a positive note because after thinking about all these emotions and going through them, I'm encouraged because of this. I'm encouraged because ultimately the problem is not a skin problem it's a sin problem. Sin is the reason we rebel against authority. Sin is the reason we abuse our authority. Sin is the reason we are racist, prejudiced and lie to cover for our own. Sin is the reason we riot, we loot and we burn. But I'm encouraged because God has provided solution for sin through his son Jesus. And with it, a transformed mind and heart, one that's capable of looking past the outward and seeing what's truly important in every human being. The cure for Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamara Rice (ph) and Eric Gardner tragedy is not education or exposure it's the Gospel. So finally, I'm encouraged because the gospel of his mankind hope.</s>BALDWIN: What -- you know, its one thing for all of us to have conversations around the water cooler or on the football field or what have you this past week. But I'm curious, Benjamin, what specifically possessed you to take the time to write this and then have the courage to share it?</s>WATSON: Great question. I do a little bit of writing, and I wouldn't consider myself a writer by any stretch of the imagination. But I do from time to time like to write about things that I see in football and kind of relate them to life, or to even to spiritual lessons. So I do some writing at times. But after the Monday night game, we didn't hear the announcement made. And so, after the Monday night game, we came on and heard about it, turned on CNN, turn on FOX and just kind of saw what was going on, saw everything that was going on in Ferguson. And my heart went out to the people there. My heart went out to both sides. And you know, over the course of the next day, we had that next Tuesday off. So I was with the kids. I made -- you know, I helped make breakfast. And then I went out to get a couple of things and so I started getting my thoughts together because there are so many emotions in this one event. And I wanted to get it out to kind of flesh out how I felt about the situation and didn't really know how I was going to write this piece or didn't know the format it was going to be in. But throughout that day, I literally took my iphone and started typing in the note section. And by the end of the day, I'm actually sitting in the parking lot of a Target on Clear View Avenue in New Orleans. My wife was in the Target. The kids were in the back. And she was getting some things, actually, for a few homeless people in the city and I just started writing. And I finished it, sent it off. I don't even know how to logon to my facebook.</s>BALDWIN: Benjamin!</s>WATSON: I'm serious. I do twitter, but facebook, I'm not that good at.</s>BALDWIN: It's alright. You get a pass.</s>WATSON: I will be honest with you. And then, you know, I sent it to the folks to put it on there. And then a couple of hours later, my phone died and my wife was looking on her computer and she said Benjamin, did you post something? I said, yes. I posted something. And she said, everybody's blowing my facebook up and asking me questions. And I actually looked and I was really speechless and floored by the response that it was getting. You know, that was two days ago on Tuesday -- actually three days ago on Tuesday. Now we're where we sit now.</s>BALDWIN: I mean, you know, you and I were talking this week over twitter as you were saying that you were overwhelmed. And I think -- I mean, I've had discussions on my show about your piece. I'm just thrilled to actually talk to you about it. And I think one part that really resonates with, you know, a lot of America is the "I'm sympathetic" section, where you talk about, I'm sympathetic to the officer. I'm sympathetic to Michael Brown and so much of America really perceiving. this story as divided along racial lines. I talked to Lz Granderson on the show yesterday and her said, his biggest frustration he was ion Ferguson, he saw it all. And he said neither side is sympathetic to the other. That's a problem.</s>WATSON: Yes. And I think that's a natural reaction. That's why I started off by saying that I'm angry. It's OK to be angry and to identify your emotion as being angry because like I said later, we like to protect our own. And because of our life experiences, whether it is being a black American or a white American, because of stories that you've heard overtime, because of injustices that have happened, because of maybe being accused of something you didn't do or maybe being accused of being racist when you're not. We have these certain histories and we react because of those. And so, you know, anger is OK. But when you get past that first level of emotion, it's important to understand, why are you angry? And then take it a step further. Am I any different than anyone else if I'm in their situation? And I think the sympathetic part, you know, I've had a lot of teammates that came up to me and actually read it. It was that really warms from my heart. Because for them to actually come to say they enjoyed the piece. But I think it was what a lot of people were thinking but didn't know how to express it. And for whatever reason, God gave me the words to put on paper and it kind of resonated with a lot of people. But I think it's really important that we take a step back sometimes and think about the other side before we make accusations and assumptions.</s>BALDWIN: Sit in the silence, let it flow, be it on paper or in the note section of your iphone. You know, so much, I think, also, Benjamin, of this about discussion about preconceived notions, about police and involving minorities. And let me keep you up of a commercial break. I want you to sit and think and