The unraveling of the Brittney Griner case has been a gut-wrenching nightmare. Furthermore, the recent developments have not made the pill any easier to swallow.
Following her months-long effort to fight for her freedom and the Russian drug charges she was facing, we have all continued to watch as Brittney Griner’s case has seemingly dragged on. There have been moments where I personally seemed to sigh in relief when yet another news headline would allude to the idea that steps were being taken to negotiate Griner’s freedom. Each time, like clockwork, there has been some sort of delay that has caused the entire case to stall. It is difficult to imagine how scared and alone Griner must feel right now. It is even harder to think about how terrified her family must feel at this time.
Yesterday, news broke that the basketball star was being moved to one of Russia’s penal colonies, a facility with a long history of human rights violations. According to CNN, Griner’s attorneys stated that they didn’t know exactly where her final destination would be, and according to Amnesty International, this is not unusual. The organization stated that many times, the process of taking a detainee to a penal colony is grueling, often with transportation conditions that fall below Council of Europe human rights standards.
While the back and forth regarding Griner’s case has clearly been upsetting, there has been a clear shift online, with several people saying that Griner “should have known better” and “not broken the rules.” There are also the moralists who have chastised Griner while concluding that she deserved what happened. While there has been outrage, it has often been lukewarm and lacking in many cases. I worry that Griner’s dire situation will slip through the cracks and become yet another headline about bad news. I worry that yet another violation is happening before our very eyes with not much to do. To me, Griner is more than a gloomy headline, and although we may not know the full extent of what she is going through, it is important that we all continue to keep her name in our mouths and keep rooting for her. When society is docile about Black women, it continues to push the narrative that they are disposable and forgettable, and as we all know by now, that is simply not true.