I nearly knocked myself out rolling my eyes after reading the letter published Oct. 6 regarding Seahawks player Michael Bennett.

The letter smacks of victim blaming, gaslighting, and white privilege, and the letter writer seems to forget that the entire crowd was under the impression that gunshots were fired. Running is a typical human reaction to such a situation. I won’t go into why drawing a weapon on just one unarmed person when there is a huge crowd of people running around is a bad law enforcement move, but it is.

Also, the letter writer clearly hasn’t been paying attention. Mr. Bennett, who has positively represented this city in more ways than just playing football (every penny of his endorsement money goes to charity, as does half the cash he makes from his jersey sales), grew up as a black boy and now man in America. If you do not know what that means, I suggest you stop watching Fox News and listening to Rush Limbaugh and open your eyes, mind, and heart.

The real issue at hand is the white patriarchy of America doesn’t like it when a black man says there’s a problem.

Had what happened to Mr. Bennett have happened to say, Jimmy Graham, I do believe the letter writer would be up in arms that the Las Vegas police misbehaved. To the letter writer, I’d like to suggest that while he is boycotting the Seahawks, he do some reading to understand better. He can start with “White Like Me” by Tim Wise.

Black Lives Matter.

Casondra Brewster

North Bend