Brittney Griner finds hatred in the U.S. upon returning home safely

Paola Boivin
| Special for The Arizona Republic

74919074007 20240810 t 144408 z 1131701354 rc 2 a 39 a 55 hyv rtrmadp 3 olympics 2024 advertising

One week in the past, an ejected and dejected Brittney Griner sat in the Mercury locker room throughout a sport in opposition to the Los Angeles Sparks and responded to Instagram posts calling her a person and questioning her toughness in Russia.

It was typical social media sludge from faceless and soulless posters flexing muscle mass enhanced by bigotry and lies.

On the day of probably the Mercury’s final sport of the season, it’s time to cease the hate. Show some grace. As we rejoice Diana Taurasi for her achieved profession, embrace, too, Griner’s robust 2024 season, her second since spending 293 days in Russian prisons.

She has persevered. Again.

Why, practically two years after her launch, are individuals nonetheless piling on?

Griner’s e book, “Coming Home,” launched in May, particulars not solely the psychological and bodily ache she endured throughout imprisonment however the challenges she confronted rising up.

This is why I began hooping. It made me really feel actually seen. It additionally made me really feel much less like an outsider … When you’re nonetheless flat chested by eighth grade, individuals discuss. Girls in the locker room level and whisper, “Is she a boy, a dyke, a freak? Why is her voice so low?

Basketball also provided a respite during college.

When you’re 6 foot 9 and wear size 17 men’s sneakers, you don’t fit. Not in cars. Not in chairs. Not in beds. Not in crowds. And definitely in a world that mistakes you for what it most fears: a Black man.

Stop questioning who Griner is and let her be. People come out of the womb differently. By middle school she was tall and had a deep voice. Her parents were concerned she had a tumor on her pituitary gland and she succumbed to the role of lab rat. She dealt with constant bullying.

Basketball changed everything. She dunked as a sophomore in high school, it went viral on YouTube and suddenly she had an identity, support, respect.

It led her to the WNBA, where she helped grow the audience for women’s basketball. But because the league can’t compete with the salaries of other countries, Griner, like many top U.S. women’s players, played overseas, where she earned a million-plus salary annually versus the $220,000 the Mercury paid her in 2022.

That February is when her life took an unfathomable turn.

Yes, she was dumb. En route to her overseas gig in Russia, she forgot she left two vape pens containing 0.7 grams of medically prescribed cannabis in her backpack.

Officials discovered it after she landed in Moscow.

A nine-year sentence for drug smuggling and possession six months after her arrest hardly fit the crime, and anyone who suggests otherwise is looking at this through a distorted lens. Her lawyer told her that half of Russia’s 36 trials that year for the same crime resulted in the defendant receiving a suspended sentence.

She was a pawn in a country trying to send a message, yet many continue to suggest she got what she deserved.

Did she deserve humiliation?

“Off,” the physician ordered. I checked out him, dumbfounded. Off? “Everything off,” he reiterated. In shock and humiliation, I eliminated my boxers. Then my socks. Even my glasses. I didn’t cowl my privates, nor did I cower or tremble. I simply tried to flee my physique, fake I wasn’t there. Two guards exchanged a look. The relaxation gazed. I sensed they anticipated me to disintegrate, some weak-ass American. I stood tall as the physician snapped photographs and motioned for me to rotate. Front. Back. Side. Click. I felt like weeping however had no tears left.

Did she deserve slave labor?

We all had completely different shifts relying on our jobs, however Russian labor camps are referred to as that for a motive. All inmates work 10-, 12-, or 15-hour-or-longer days. We earned a couple of rubles an hour, round 25¢. … I labored in stitching, in a factory-like constructing with row after row of Soviet-era machines. There was no air flow and little warmth. No toilet breaks. We knew to empty our bladders throughout the 20-minute lunch break. Each group was given a quota, round 500 navy uniforms a day. Teams who failed had been berated.

Did she deserve indignity?

The bathe was a tiny, tiled stall behind a folding display screen. I used to be too huge, so I squatted behind the display screen, scooped water over my dreads, and tried to get clear. Meanwhile, the restroom buzzed. It was one huge open space with 4 bogs going through one another and 6 sinks shared by all 50 of us. I noticed quite a bit I didn’t wish to see, and the room reeked, as did most of the girls.

She ultimately reduce her hair quick in jail as a result of her deadlocks grew to become knotted, then frozen, then moldy from the situations.

People have referred to as her anti-American.

Huh?

She has typically spoken of her patriotism.
Her father fought in Vietnam and served in regulation enforcement for 30 years.
She grew up desirous to be like him.
She strongly believes in a rustic her father labored arduous to defend.
She believes fervently in NOT defunding the police.

And when you have a problem with Griner coming home due to a prisoner swap that concerned a Russian arms seller, take it up with the authorities, not Griner. To today, she works with Bring Our Families Home, a gaggle fashioned in 2022 by the relations of American hostages and wrongful detainees held abroad.

Her return home was joyful however not simple. She has struggled with sleep. She has been subjected to the worst of social media trolls.

Yet she remains a pleasure to watch on the basketball court and still engages with fans. Sometimes you still see that childlike personality emerge.

So give her a break. Show some grace. Celebrate a woman who has battled a lifetime of bullying.

And if you can’t, bring your weak takes elsewhere.

Paola Boivin is a former columnist for The Arizona Republic and now is a professor at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication