Brittney Griner” Putin Exploited America’s Racial Tensions
May 13, 2024
Putin “was well aware of America’s long history of racial tensions, and he knew how to use that to his benefit,” she wrote.in her memoir.
As BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported, on May 7 Brittney Griner released her memoir, “Coming Home,” which details the harrowing experience the WNBA superstar faced while incarcerated in a Russian prison. Griner’s memoir, co-written by New York Times bestselling author Michelle Buford, made its debut at number one on Amazon’s best-seller list and sparkling reviews praising its honesty and intimacy.
As NBC News reports, the book is relatively brief, spanning only 300 pages. At one point in the memoir, Griner questioned how far the Black Lives Matter movement went in relation to Black queer people, as she wrote that she believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin used her detainment and incarceration as a bargaining chip.
“Black lives matter. We hear that in the streets, but what is a Black life really worth? Judging by our history, it seems not much, and even less if you’re gay. For Putin, my worth was as a pawn. My arrest gave him leverage in his clash with the West. He was well aware of America’s long history of racial tensions, and he knew how to use that to his benefit,” she wrote.
Griner detailed her disappointment at believing that she had brought shame and disgrace to the family name once the news of her arrest was reported. “I cried because I’d let down my father. The Griner name was now stained around the globe: dopehead, drug dealer, dumb. I hurt because I knew I’d handed the world a weapon. When you’re Black, your behavior is never just about you. It’s about your entire community.”
Griner also described bouts of depression and her disgust at the conditions of the shower in the Russian prison she was initially detained at. “It was nasty, exposed pipes on every wall. Long hair strands all over the tile floor and gathered in the drains. A bloody tampon was tucked between two pipes. As much as I was disgusted by the scene, I was just as repulsed by my stench.”
Griner continued, “I undressed and found the cleanest part of the floor. I turned the faucet on, and rusty brown water came spouting out. I closed my eyes tight, trying to forget where I was. I thought of Relle [her wife Cherelle] and home and all I had left behind. Down the water slid from my dreads onto the floor splashing away the hell I endured. I stayed in there a good 30 minutes until I banged on the door for the guard to let me out. That was the nastiest shower I’d ever taken. It was also the best.”
Once Griner was transferred to another, more notorious Russian penal colony, the depression she was facing deepened, and she cut her hair off. In her memoir, Griner wrote that the experience revealed to her exactly how tough she really is. “I had been frozen, sick, got my hair chopped off. The girl I was lay on a heap of dreads on a concrete floor. … At a labor camp in Russia in the dead of winter, I learned how tough I was.” Griner also revealed that the letters from family and friends kept her going as she waited and eventually was released in December 2022 as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia; Griner was exchanged for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death.”
Since her release, Griner has resumed playing in the WNBA, still with the Phoenix Mercury, the team that drafted her with their first overall pick in 2013. Griner is also currently seeing a therapist, and has been an outspoken advocate for the United States securing the release of Paul Whelan, a former Marine who has been detained in Russia since 2018 on suspicion of espionage. The United States has denied the charges, and Griner has made her position known in her memoir, writing, “I will not rest until Paul Whelan is released.”
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