A Student’s Perspective: Britney Griner

Last week, American WNBA star Britney Griner was released from Russian Prison after 294 days in custody. She spent the offseason playing for the UMMC Ekaterinburg in Russia, while returning to Moscow she was detained for carrying cannabis oils in her suitcase. Griner was sentenced to a nine-year sentence for drug possession and smuggling. Her arrest quickly sparked social media attention, and outrage demanded that the US government step in and bring Griner home. However, now that Griner is home the public is not as pleased as one might guess.

As soon as the news broke that a prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was organized to release Griner, outrage filled the comments once again. However this time, Americans were bitter over the fact that Griner was released instead of former United States Marine Paul Whelan. Whelan was arrested under espionage charges in 2018 and has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. Backlash due to the United States seemingly forgetting about Paul Whelan quickly cut the celebration of Griner’s release.

But why do Americans suddenly care about this former Marine when he barely had media attention before Griner was released? Especially when they were previously so passionate about Griner, now they are speaking out against her release claiming Whelan would be a better candidate. The mass media attention brought to Britney Griner´s case by American citizens helped her gain her freedom. So if Americans feel so strongly for Paul Whelan’s freedom, the logical choice is to rally together once again to advocate for his release. However, it has been one week since Griner was released and conversations regarding Whelan have seemingly disappeared. The reason for Americans’ sudden passion regarding the freedom of Paul Whelan is not sympathy, it is the want to be outraged.

If you were to open Twitter, more than half of the trending hashtags would likely be full of angry users ranting about a current event. The response to Brittney Griner’s release is just another example of the internet being prone to aggression. Unfortunately, this time it puts an unneeded damper on what should be Griner´s happy release.