The Tight Rope

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As we navigate the balance between hope and uncertainty, we invite you to join Dr. Cornel West & Professor Tricia Rose on The Tight Rope, a weekly program where we welcome listeners and guests as thought collaborators. The Tight Rope is rich in creative, unfiltered dialogue on topics ranging from culture, art, and music to the contours of systemic racism, philosophy, the power of Socratic self-examination, and the possibilities of a peaceful and just world. Our innovative and interactive format will highlight the professors’ combined expertise to encourage critical thinking, self-reflection, and human connection as we navigate The Tight Rope.

Episodes

Thursday Aug 27, 2020

NFL veteran Michael Bennett: Uncomfortable Conversations

Thursday Aug 27, 2020

Episode Summary

Join Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose on this episode of The Tight Rope in their compelling conversation with NFL superstar and author of Things That Make White People Uncomfortable Michael Bennett. From the strong women in his life and the path to embracing his intellect, to the exploitation of celebrity and “ownership” in the NFL, Bennett engages on all levels with our hosts. Office Hours focuses on “COVID in the Classroom,” both its impact on the learning environment and its economic realities. Hear about Bennet’s thoughts on discernment, retirement, and Colin Kaepernick on The Tight Rope.

Cornel West

Dr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.

Tricia Rose

Professor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.

Michael Bennett

Michael Bennett is a recently retired 11-year NFL veteran with three Pro Bowl victories and a Super Bowl title. He was a pivotal defensive end for multiple teams including the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys. Bennett, an outspoken proponent for social justice and vocal anti-racist in the NFL, has a podcast called “Mouthpeace” with his wife Pele Bennett and a book titled Things That Make White People Uncomfortable, which he is developing into a scripted TV series. Bennett also works with Athletes for Impact, an organization focusing on athlete activism, and he and his wife established The Bennett Foundation with their three daughters.

Insight from this episode:

Details on Bennett’s recent retirement from the NFL and his new path forward.
Secrets to having a spine and making it shine.
Personal reflections from Bennett and his wife Pele on going “back to Africa” and his work with iamtheCODE in Senegal.
Strategies on cultivating leadership not driven by ego.
Words of encouragement from our hosts on fulfilling your purpose while also being sensitive to what is happening in the world.

Quotes from the show:

“You don’t pity people who you are fundamentally tethered to.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12

“I worry that while we’re trying to survive COVID, somebody’s engineering a world after COVID that is not the world that we want.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12

“You can’t segregate me from my Blackness, you can’t segregate me from my culture, you can’t segregate me from my community because I am that.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12

“It’s important to be vulnerable because our children need to see us love. Our children need to see us cry. Our children need to see us say I love you. They need to see us love our women. They need to see all of it as being a full human being.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12

“I’m an extension of someone who never gave up.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12

On visiting Gorée Island, Senegal and his grandmother: “It was bigger than the Super Bowl to me. It was bigger than a lot of the things that I had accomplished because I had made it back to Africa. There’s a lot of people that accomplished a lot of things, but they never made it back to the motherland to rest their ancestors’ soul. And I felt at that moment a big release. I felt like she was back. She had made it back.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12

On his role in the NFL: “We’re really playing the game of liberation.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12

On Pema Chödrön: “There’s power within healing yourself and being able to be ready for the world. And also, when I read her books, it just makes my consciousness have a sense of peace and a sense of being happy in the moment.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12

“What you do has got to be as essential to you as oxygen. It’s the skin on your body. It’s the love of your parents.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #12

“The need is everywhere. We settled that. There ain’t no place where we don’t have a need. So you go where you need to go.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12

On COVID in the classroom: “The main thing I’m worried about is the loss of the kind of human connection when ideas click in that way that it’s so interpersonal even in a big lecture hall. You can feel people thinking.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12

Stay Connected:
Cornel West

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Tricia Rose

Website: www.triciarose.com

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Twitter: @ProfTriciaRose

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Instagram: @ProfTriciaRose