Post by trueblue on Aug 16, 2022 16:58:58 GMT
With every day that passes, the Brittney Griner situation keeps getting more complex. Currently, Griner’s legal team is attempting to appeal her sentence. While there have been talks about an exchange, the journey has been long and arduous. Earlier this year, the WNBA star was arrested by Russian authorities for having canisters containing marijuana concentrates in her luggage. Although there have been a lot of updates about her imprisonment and the politics around it, the empathy online seems to be nonexistent, and we need to talk about that.
It seems as though it is a common norm for people to become overly righteous and puritan when a Black person gets into the slightest trouble. While Griner shared that she was sorry for carrying the illegal substance into the country, online participants have had different ideas. The fact that people online are dismissively saying that Griner ‘should not have broken the rules,’ and ‘celebrities should not expect special treatment,’ seems out of place. In many instances, statements like these are shrouded in hidden internalized bigotry.
Social media has been awash with a frenzy of light-hearted memes about Griner’s situation. To many people, the situation is a comedic fiasco sandwiched in politics. It can be easy to make memes for a few hundred likes, but doing that misses the mark and pushes us further away from our humanity. The harsh reality is that Griner has been detained for months, and has allegedly been treated poorly. Instead of investing in wisecracks, showing genuine support is what is needed at this time.