Why Can’t We Be Joyous About Griner?

The release of an American imprisoned in Russia should be a joyous occasion. And that Brittney Griner is back home with her family is, indeed, a wonderful thing. So why then is it so controversial? Even worse, why are so many upset by it?

There is the question of whether the one-for-one prisoner swap for arms dealer Victor Bout was a good deal, but that emits the unpleasant odor of rationalization. Few gave any thought to Bout until his name was highlighted in this swap, and suddenly he’s so important that his  continued imprisonment for another seven years until his sentence is served is more critical than this swap? It may not have been a good deal, but that’s not what’s really bugging people.

And then there are the other Americans who remain imprisoned in Russia, Paul Whelan and Marc Fogel. And then there was California teacher Sarah Krivanek who also just got out of Russia, though no one was swapped for her and few have ever heard her name. What about these Americans? But then, if the same trade had occurred for Whelan or Fogel, would the same argument not be valid to ask “What about Griner?” If the best that could be done was securing the release of one, why Whelan instead of Griner? Isn’t Griner instead of Whelan no less reasonable, even if unfortunate?

Of course, Griner isn’t entirely without responsibility for her circumstance. She had the hash oil vapes in her bag as she tried to make it out of Russia, something she says she forgot about and there is no reason to doubt her. But forgetting doesn’t mean it’s any less illegal under Russian law, and few would be quite so forgetful when leaving Russia knowing how severe they can be about drugs and foreigners.

And it’s not as if we can’t be harsh in our treatment of other country’s nationals, not to mention our own, when it comes to drugs (and many other things). When we lock the citizens of other nations away for decades, is it entirely different than when Russia does? Well sure it is, because we’re the world’s shiny light of freedom country and Russia is the evil empire. But I digest.

So what made this release, this swap, this exchange that freed an American from the gulag anything other than cause for celebration?

A considerable amount of attention was also paid to who Ms. Griner is: a Black woman, a celebrity, a married lesbian and, though it had gone largely unnoticed until now, an assertive liberal — one who, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, called to stop playing the national anthem at her team’s basketball games.

The list of attributes following Griner’s name in this paragraph reflects things that none of the other Americans imprisoned abroad can claim. They are merely Americans. Isn’t that good enough?

But Ms. Griner’s case has gone beyond such calculations, into the fraught arenas of race, gender and sexual orientation, and at a time of make-no-concessions partisanship, when large swaths of the American public are steeped in the grievance politics and adversary demonization of Mr. Trump and his acolytes.

It’s certainly true that the right harped on Griner’s personal characteristics, but then the left gave cause to do so. If you’re going to extol her release because she’s a “gay, black woman,” then you can’t complain when someone points out that the reason Griner was the one for whom Bout was traded is not because she is a worthier American, but because she is a “gay, black woman.”

“There’s that underlying sense that this is part of the Democrats’ focusing on someone who is sympathetic to them and leaving a Marine behind,” said David Silbey, a military historian at Cornell University. “It fits nicely in the narrative that a lot of the right is telling America, about who gets the privilege in Biden’s America.”

The release of an American from Russian custody should be a good thing, and yet the nagging sense that the administration’s efforts to obtain Griner’s release was not because she was a worthier American than Paul Whelan or Marc Fogel, but because Griner had the trifecta of woke traits, “gay, black woman.” Conversely, Whelan and Fogel were straight, white men, so they were left behind, lacking the identities that are valued sufficiently to make them worthy of either a trade for Bout or to hold firm with Putin until an arms dealer’s release worth more than a women’s basketball player who had hash oil in her vape pen.

As much as her fame and prominence made her incarceration intolerable to some Americans, Ms. Griner’s gender may be coloring the exchange in the eyes of some critics, Professor Silbey suggested.

Much as the WNBA doesn’t manage to find its way onto most Americans’ radar until it does, Griner was very much a star player and, to the extent any women’s basketball player can be termed a “celebrity,” a celebrity even if only to those who followed such things.

The response to her arrest in Moscow on extremely minor drug charges — and especially to her release — would have been wildly different if they had happened to her male equivalent, he said.

“If LeBron James had been grabbed by Russia at an airport and sent to a prison camp,” Professor Silbey said, “imagine the level of hysteria that would have caused.”

This is likely true, though untested and consequently relegated to the vagary of “imagine” since there is no basis to prove King James would have been treated differently. But then, if true, as it likely is, would it be because LeBron was a straight male or black or because he was a celebrity whose name was far more widely recognized than Griner’s? And even if true, as it likely is, does that make his life more valued than Whelan’s and Fogel’s?

But Griner isn’t LeBron James, and yet she was the one American traded for Victor Bout when others were not. Whether this was a product of her celebrity, her high profile advocates, or her being a “gay, black woman,” the sense that the determination was made because of race, gender and sexual orientation taints what should be a great thing, that an American was repatriated, and this time, the American was Brittney Griner.

25 thoughts on “Why Can’t We Be Joyous About Griner?

  1. Paleo

    FWIW, my daughter played basketball against Griner in high school. I first set eyes on her when she was a freshman, and even then she towered above most of the older boys.

    Back on topic, the answer to the question in your title is that there is such a kerfuffle over this is that the crazies out at each end of the spectrum are driven to have a kerfuffle over everything.

    I would probably have preferred to see the marine released because it seems as if the charges against him are a little more likely to be trumped up, but no big deal either way. As you say, it could only be one and Biden played to form choosing how he chose. Remarkably he announced the deal freeing the gun dealer then headed over to an anti-gun rally. Expecting Biden to be intellectually consistent is something like expecting my dog to do calculus.

    But the woke scolds gotta scold us over everything, especially in this case since as always it’s our fault because we clearly don’t like black gay women. And because us cis white shitlords won’t like the WNBA as much as we like the NBA, thereby forcing Griner to be oppressed overseas by playing basketball for $500k/year.

    Meanwhile, way out at the other end there’s a group of people who go nutso over anything having to do with gay. Some of the stuff posted this week after Congress codified gay marriage was just nuts. You and I see it as people gaining liberty they can’t get past the fact that what those people do is just icky.

    Two groups that can’t help making everything that happens how much better they are than everyone and what a shame it is that people won’t think right. Be nice if the media would quit giving their bs so much prominence, but that’s unlikely since one of the groups is substantially made up of the media.

    1. Miles

      Would Griner have been the one if she wasn’t a gay, black woman? It’s hard to say for sure, but the fact that it’s a very fair question means that we no longer feel that our government can be trusted not to make decisions based on race, gender and orientation.

  2. B. McLeod

    I don’t see anything to be joyous about. Griner is a reluctant “American” at best, and had no use for this country until she was in the prickly bush and needed a bailout.

      1. cthulhu

        I think is wasn’t so much the criticism of America by Griner, but that the criticism of America and the wokeosity seemed to be all there was to Griner; that she had casually and thoughtlessly jumped on the “America sucks!” bandwagon…until she needed America to save her ass from her own stupidity. It will be instructive to see how she acts now; maybe she’s capable of personal growth and nuance, or maybe not.

        The other element of this case that seems to have gotten some people’s back up (including mine, at least a little bit, TBH) is the not-so-muted roar from the usual suspects that this was all our fault – we didn’t care about Griner because she was a gay black woman, and if we bigots had been doing our duty and watching at least as much WNBA as NBA this wouldn’t have happened because Griner would be the biggest sports star on the planet (as she should rightfully be, of course, due to her intersectionality points) and the Russians wouldn’t dare to fuck with her, and she wouldn’t have even been there because she’d have more money than God because that’s her natural right due to her aforementioned intersectionality points…etc. So you run this version of the trolley problem in your head, and it’s easy to move the switch to saving the Marine. (Maybe that wasn’t on the table, although NBC originally reported it was, then altered their report with no explanation of why when Biden said Griner was the only deal Russia offered. Who knows.)

        As far as the LeBron hypothetical…I’m not so sure it would work out as Silbey speculated. But along with not watching or paying attention to the WNBA, I don’t GAF about the NBA either, or any pro sports, for quite a while now, so maybe I’m not the best person to offer that opinion.

  3. j a higginbotham

    And maybe that was the only deal the Russians would make, in part because of the ruckus sure to be raised by her low Patriot Score (R) as assigned by whomever.

  4. Tom Kirkendall

    The Griner Affair highlighted how the mainstream media and most of the public do not understand prisoner exchanges. Such exchanges are being negotiated continually through State Department channels, usually with little publicity. All things considered, Griner’s celebrity status probably hurt her in terms of the exchange because the hype about her arrest likely increased the price to the U.S. of an exchange. That she was involved in an exchange certainly does not mean that the State Department is neglecting other U.S. prisoners in Russia. The context of each case makes a big difference in the timing and the cost of the exchange. Griner is fortunate that her particular context made an exchange in both sides’ interests at this time.

    1. Sonetka

      This is highlighted by the fact that Trevor Reed, a white former Marine, was swapped by Russia in exchange for another Russian prisoner back in April. Reed had been there since 2019, and Griner had been in custody for two months by then. Undoubtedly, negotiations to free Reed had been going on since before Griner was arrested. It wasn’t just a matter of matter of picking your favorite card out of a deck, Russia assigns its own values to different prisoners. From what I’ve read, I get the impression this was Hobson’s Choice: they could send back Griner or send back nobody, and Bout would eventually be free regardless. That idiots like Randi Weingarten have either forgotten or never knew of Reed’s exchange doesn’t mean much.

  5. DaveL

    So what if few had ever heard of Bout? I certainly had never heard of Griner before she got herself incarcerated in Russia. At one point, Bout was just below Osama Bin Laden in terms of men wanted by the United States. Let’s face it, this was a devil’s bargain. I can accept this was a devil’s bargain the United States needed to make, in order to do its duty by its citizens. I can even approve of them making it. But that doesn’t mean we have to celebrate it.

  6. Anonymous Coward

    My take is that Ms. Griner became a cause celebrė because of her intersectionality points and tensions with Russia. Would the she have been front page news and politicians exchanged prisoners if Ms. Griner had been arrested in Canada, ruled by Progressive darling Trudeau and set to do time in Saskatchewan? Alternatively would the media and politicians reacted this way for straight white second string NBA player busted for drug possession in Russia?
    I personally think this was the result of arrogance because Ms. Griner thought her celebrity status insulated her from arrest or ignorance because US authorities turned a blind eye. I guess this raises an alternate hypothetical of WNBA star busted for drug possession in Malaysia which has the death penalty for drug charges but hits several Progressive check boxes.
    As an aside Paul Whelan the ex Marine is no angel since he was dishonorably discharged for embezzlement and was apparently engaged in private espionage.

  7. Dan

    I couldn’t possibly care less that she’s black or female, and I care only a tiny bit more that she’s bought into the delusion that she can be (and indeed is) married to another woman. But that this country will go to such lengths to free someone who openly hates it isn’t something to celebrate.

    1. Grant

      That this country will go to such lengths to free its citizen who openly hates it is something to celebrate.

      The nagging sense the government may be doing it for the wrong reasons, less so.

  8. AnnaD

    H’mm, doesn’t seem to mean anything to anybody that Brittney Griner represented the United States winning 2 Olympic Gold medals with the Women’s Team USA Basketball team? ” In 2016, she played for the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team at the Summer Olympics and earned her first Olympic gold medal as they beat Spain 101–72 in the final, becoming one of 11 players who have earned an Olympic gold medal, FIBA World Cup gold medal, WNBA title, an NCAA title, joining Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Tamika Catchings, Cynthia Cooper, Asjha Jones, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, Sheryl Swoopes, Diana Taurasi, and Kara Wolters on the list.
    Griner was selected for her second Olympics in 2021, going undefeated and winning the gold medal as part of Team USA.”h

      1. AnnaD

        She doesn’t “hate” The United States, as her actions show that she has repeatedly represented the United States. And these Olympics are not paid gigs, by the way. People give time to practice and risk injury by playing in these international competitions, so it is a sacrifice for athletes to agree to play on these teams, as much as it is an honor. Sorry if that was obscure.

        1. David

          It seems highly unlikely that her playing for the US in the Olympics demonstrates love of country rather than individual ego. Winning gold medals is pretty cool, regardless of the color of your uniform.

          That doesn’t mean she hates the US, but it doesn’t mean she doesn’t hate it either.

  9. Mike V.

    I’m glad she’s out, I guess. But I’m not sure trading her for an arms dealer who was so prolific at his craft that his nickname was “The Merchant of Death” was a smart move. Due to Griner’s celebrity, the Putin sensed Biden was over a barrel, and took full advantage.

    I just hope that now that she is home, she has a greater appreciation for this nation.

  10. Steven G

    It’s simply because of the hyper-partisan world we live in.

    Biden got Griner released, focus on the fact that he couldn’t get the others released, and a little bit on the person we had to give back to Russia, as well as pillory Griner’s character.

    If Biden got multiple people released, the focus would have been on the horrible people that we had to release in order to get them released.

    If Biden was somehow able to get them released, without horrible people have to be released, it would have insinuated that Biden and Putin are in cahoots, and they would have demanded an investigation into that.

    I.e. it’s a no-win situation, and the republicans would have been bitter and looking at the negatives NO matter what.

    This is not to say the democrats are any better. If Trump had pulled off the same thing, or any other republican leader, similar calls would have been made.

  11. Gregory Smith

    Seems to be a lot of people who are convinced that if they had been doing the negotiating, the USA would have gotten a better deal. Also a lot of people who will groan when Messi misses a shot on goal because they’re pretty sure it would have gone in if they had been the one kicking the ball.

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