The first time I heard of Brittney Griner, we were both sophomores at our respective religious universities. I was living in Cincinnati at the time, studying sport management with big hopes of working in sports and entertainment. Griner was in Waco, Texas, a place much smaller and much more conservative—with a lot less Black folk. Given the fact that I was working in intercollegiate athletics, but also eating, sleeping, and breathing it, I certainly had heard of a 6’9” rising star named Brittney Griner at Baylor University.

I remember Griner dominating anyone who came her way. She was unstoppable. NCAA analysts compared her dominance to the likes of Shaquille O’Neal at LSU, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at UCLA, and Wilt Chamberlain at Kansas. No, this was Brittney Griner, a bastion of talent that was building a name for herself.

If it weren’t for Brittney Griner, as well as the coach at the time, Kim Mulkey, I’m not sure the Baylor women’s basketball program would have the success it has had this century. She put them on the map.

After four years at Baylor and one NCAA national championship, Brittney Griner was drafted with the 1st pick overall in the 2013 WNBA Draft. She has continued her success on the professional stage, as a WNBA champion, 7 time All Star, and 2 time scoring champ. Griner has done this all while leading the league seven out of the last nine years. Her streak was interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, not another athlete.

Brittney Griner is unstoppable. She’s arguably the best player in the WNBA, if not second best (think LeBron James versus Kevin Durant arguments). Griner is not just any star, she’s a star on the Phoenix Mercury, a team loaded with stars like Skyler Diggins, Diana Turasi, and Tina Charles. 

Despite all her success, Griner is currently being held by Russian authorities for drug charges. Last month, she was arrested because her vaporiser allegedly had hashish oil in it. But many are speculating concerns that Griner (a U.S. citizen) is being used as leverage due to the West’s sanctions on Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.

It’s important to note that one of the only reasons why Griner and other women play overseas is because the WNBA not only doesn’t pay enough, it often pays less than basketball programs overseas. Griner signed a deal in 2013 with the Phoenix Mercury as their draft pick, while also signing a deal with Zhejiang Golden Bulls of China. Since 2014, Griner has been spending parts of her years in Yekaterinburg, Russia playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg.

Again, it is important to note a few things about Griner’s arrest. It became public knowledge recently after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, around the time of the sanctions given by the U.S., UK, EU, and Canada. But Holly Honderich of BBC reported that Griner was arrested before the invasion. The truth is, we don’t know exactly when Griner was arrested. We do know that she will be detained at least until the 19th of May, and faces charges up to ten years in prison. 

Brittney Griner is a lesbian from Texas. As someone who lived there six years, there is no doubt in my mind she has faced discrimination. But imagine navigating Russia as a Black, queer woman. As much as I don’t want to say it, I believe that if Griner was white, or a man for that matter, she would be considered a political prisoner and it would have made news much sooner. Griner had been arrested for two or three weeks, before it became mainstream news. Can we honestly say that if Griner was someone like LeBron James, or former WNBA player Sue Bird it wouldn’t be seen as a global travesty? Would they not be seen as political prisoners?

In the west, particularly in The States and Canada, you have systemic inequality where when Black or Brown women go missing, the outrage is never as swift, the cries never as raucous. We see this with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women as well as places like Washington, D.C. where 14 Black girls once went missing in 24 hours in 2017.

Griner plays basketball in two countries, because women don’t make as much for playing basketball. Sexism and wage inequality is what has Griner in Russia in the first place. If the WNBA paid better wages, perhaps its stars would not have to risk their personhood in other nations.

Some will blame the victim and say and say that it’s Griner’s fault, but Griner has zero history with drugs. If you keyword search ‘drug’ on her Wikipedia page, this is the first and only instance.

The reality is Griner has vanished. Former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 Presidential Candidate Hilary Rodham Clinton tweeted her support of Griner recently, saying “Free Brittney.” U.S. Congressman Colin Allred (TX-D) has said that he hopes Griner doesn’t become “Putin’s Pawn.” But according to Griner’s wife, she hasn’t been in much communication with Griner. 

It is sexism that has caused the lowest paid NBA veteran to earn a minimum of $1 million, while Griner, top of her peers, earns $227,000 USD this year. It is that same sexism that sent her to China and eventually Russia part time for almost a decade. Now, Griner sits and awaits her fate, while most others continue about their lives. If LeBron James vanished, we’d likely see outrage from various western leaders, as well as everyone in Hollywood. LeBron haters would hang up their hardware overnight in the name of westernism.

But Brittney Griner isn’t a white woman, nor the best male basketball player in the world. Brittney Griner is a Black, queer woman. And for western society, that isn’t enough to fuss about. We need to do better by Griner, and Black women period. Before it’s too late.