Why did it take so long to care about Brittney Griner?
  August 5, 2022 Morning glorious Meteor readers, We hope you are having a great weekend! The news has been heavy this week, but a quick housekeeping announcement before we get into all of that. Starting next week, we’re going to be coming to you every Tuesday and Thursday instead of on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Change is fun! Now on to the news. With love, The Meteor  WHAT’S GOING ONIt took us too long to pay attention to Brittney GrinerBY SHANNON MELERO  SHE SHOULD BE HERE. (IMAGE BY MEG OLIPHANT VIA GETTY IMAGES) On Thursday, after she submitted a guilty plea, a Russian court sentenced Brittney Griner to nine years in prison on drug-related charges. The WNBA star has been wrongfully detained in Russia since February when officials found cannabis oil in her luggage. According to Griner’s testimony, she was not made aware of her rights during her arrest and did not intentionally bring the oil—which was prescribed to her by a doctor and was found to be less than one gram—into the country. “I still don’t understand to this day how they ended up in my bags,” Griner told the court during her trial. The two questions that continue to arise from folks unfamiliar with Griner and her career are Why was she there in the first place? and Why plead guilty? To answer the first question: Many WNBA players compete overseas during the American off-season to make up for the money they’re not being paid to play stateside. And as Connecticut Sun forward Jonquel Jones explained to the Washington Post, it’s not just the money luring American players—it’s how well they’re treated and the level of international competition compared to the lackluster provisions in the U.S. Jones said playing in Russia “felt like the first time I arrived as a basketball player.” Before the attack on Ukraine, huge names from the WNBA had played multiple seasons in Russia, including Jones, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, and Breanna Stewart. And to answer the second question: Griner’s guilty plea submitted in early July was a defense tactic partially aimed at securing a reduced sentence. After the plea, her defense team released a statement that reads in part: “She decided to take full responsibility for her actions as she knows that she is a role model for many people. Considering the nature of her case, the insignificant amount of the substance, and BG’s personality and history of positive contributions to global and Russian sport, the defense hopes that the plea will be considered by the court as a mitigating factor and there will be no severe sentence.”  BRITTNEY GRINER’S REACTION AS HER SENTENCE WAS HANDED DOWN (VIA CNN) But as we learned this week, she was not met with leniency; her sentence is only one year short of the maximum for this offense. Now Griner’s only hope for freedom is a prisoner swap, coordinated by the Biden administration, which has been offering platitudes but has made only one concrete offer to the Russians over the last 100+ days. According to The Athletic, Russia is “ready to discuss” the prisoner swap offer, which would also include the return of Paul Whelan, another American detainee. The Brittney Griner story is a reminder of why sports should matter to feminists (and not only when there’s a story of pay disparity or sexual assault). I’ve often heard It’s just basketball, or Who cares about football? or There are bigger things for Serious Intellectuals to worry about. But Brittney Griner is an underpaid, Black, queer basketball player from a league that severely lacks cultural and economic investment. Like many women and trans athletes, Brittney Griner has devoted the majority of her life to her sport and giving back to her community—only to be largely ignored by media outlets that turn their noses up at athletes whose last name isn’t James, Manning, or Brady. It’s unfortunate that it’s taken an international fiasco for media outlets to take note of the WNBA and the work its players have done in social justice and pay equity. Finally, some justice for Breonna Taylor’s familyBY SAMHITA MUKHOPADHYAY  SHE HAD HER WHOLE LIFE AHEAD OF HER. (IMAGE BY LEIGH VOGEL VIA GETTY IMAGES) When 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, a medical worker, was killed by police at the beginning of the pandemic, justice didn’t seem possible. Her family’s legal recourse was limited—the Louisville police claimed to have a no-knock warrant because they believed Taylor’s house was receiving drug packages (it wasn’t) making their actions legal. Later, the Kentucky attorney general, Daniel Cameron, grossly mishandled the case, claiming he did not want to cave to “mob justice.” In 2020, one of the officers had been fired, but no one had been charged. But this week, news that was a long time coming finally arrived: The Department of Justice announced federal charges against the officers involved in the murder. While none of the officers have been charged with directly causing Taylor’s death, enough evidence has been found to suggest that three of them violated her rights by executing a search warrant without probable cause—and then “fabricating a story to evade responsibility.” The fourth officer, Brett Hankison, is facing a federal charge of “unconstitutional excessive force” after he shot ten rounds into Taylor’s apartment and that of a neighbor. It’s worth noting that these charges didn’t just “happen.” Department of Justice watchers saw the handiwork of Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke—one of two DOJ appointees last year who were notable for their commitment to criminal justice reform (the other is Vanita Gupta). In her remarks on the charges, Clarke said: “Community safety dictates that police officers use their weapons only when necessary to defend their own lives or the lives of others, and even then, that they must do so with great care and caution. Today, after a full and comprehensive investigation, the facts and law have brought us here, to these indictments.”  THE INCOMPARABLE KRISTEN CLARKE. (IMAGE BY ANNA MONEYMAKER VIA GETTY IMAGES) When Clarke was nominated, Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center, praised her appointment as “powerful and historic.” This week, she told The Meteor, she saw that power in action.“Kristen Clarke’s civil rights track record and deep experience have made her exactly the right person to lead the civil rights division in these times,” says Goss Graves. “And each time her leadership is tested—and as the first Black woman to lead the division, it happens often—she rises to meet the moment. We’ve learned again and again that elections matter and leadership matters. It requires courage, clarity, skills, and empathy. It gives me such hope that we will finally see justice for Breonna Taylor, and the country will be comforted by [Clarke’s] leadership.”  A FEW MORE THINGS:
 FOLLOW THE METEOR    Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Sign up for your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays.
|
