Petition Calls on White House To Do More to Free Brittney Griner from Putin

WNBA star Brittney Griner was arrested in Moscow for possession of a hash oil back back in February. The WNBA, and President Biden, have done practically nothing other than slap logos on the court and start hashtags.

Now they’ve finally started a petition to return Griner to the states. Why aren’t American officials doing more? If they care about the WNBA and the league’s growth as much as they suggest, some type of action would be expected.

Secure Brittney Griner's Swift and Safe Return to the U​.​S. – Sign the Petition! https://t.co/FJFuWIY2ox via @Change

— dawnstaley (@dawnstaley) May 14, 2022

So far, the petition has 132,685 signatures of the 150,000 asked for. That’s a lot of signatures and by the time you read this, they’ll likely have met their goal. But will this petition change anything? Amongst the signature count on Change.org are other articles involving Brittney Griner that read: “Pay Inequality Led Brittney Griner To Russia. We Must Fix It.”

Picture LeBron James draped up in a Moscow prison cell on charges for hash oil. The NBA would throw a fit and perhaps cancels games to assure his safety, and that’s probably how leagues should treat their most prized assets. A better example, though, would be rapper A$AP Rocky who was arrested in 2019 in Sweden all for President Trump to demand his release. Trump took action to release a black rapper from prison but Joe Biden tweets nice things about minorities — he’ll leave the black WNBA star in Russia, though.

A$AP Rocky would eventually thank President Trump in 2020 for his help and then later retract his statement, likely over of backlash, suggesting President Trump made his pursuit to freedom “a little worse.” It’s so laughable how much celebrities care about what Trump said rather than what he actually did.

Everyone needs to do more

Whether or not we find the WNBA entertaining or not, Britney Griner should be able to rely on a president and league she supports to do more for her safety. The Phoenix Mercery center has openly criticized the United States over the years and it’s made the pursuit for her safety more complicated and polarizing. What should be simple, however, is for the people she perceived as her allies to rush to her defense. They haven’t done much so far and it remains to be seen how this petition impacts her case. It’s more probable everyone wants to share this petition so they can feel like a better person inside. Signing this petition is essentially 2022’s version of Instagram’s black square heroics.

Those people signing their signatures should demand for Joe Biden to step in. They’d quickly learn which party was founded on action and who’s more interested in optics.