{"id":523553,"date":"2022-12-08T22:01:02","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T19:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-black-women-served-a-critical-role-in-securing-britney-griners-release\/"},"modified":"2022-12-08T22:01:02","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T19:01:02","slug":"how-black-women-served-a-critical-role-in-securing-britney-griners-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-black-women-served-a-critical-role-in-securing-britney-griners-release\/","title":{"rendered":"#How Black women served a critical role in securing Britney Griner\u2019s release\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a384671946ce\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a384671946ce\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-black-women-served-a-critical-role-in-securing-britney-griners-release\/#How_Black_women_served_a_critical_role_in_securing_Britney_Griners_release\" >How Black women served a critical role in securing Britney Griner\u2019s release\u00a0<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_Black_women_served_a_critical_role_in_securing_Britney_Griners_release\"><\/span>How Black women served a critical role in securing Britney Griner\u2019s release\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/GrinerCherelle_120822_AP_Patrick-Semansky.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Jotaka Eaddy was sitting at her home in Washington on Thursday morning when she got a text message from a friend: Brittney Griner was coming home, it said. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Eaddy paused, then reread the message as a flood of emotions \u2014 relief, joy, pride\u2014 ran through her.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>The founder of the Win With Black Women collective, Eaddy had been among thousands of women across the country battling to bring Griner, a center for the WNBA\u2019s Phoenix Mercury and an Olympic gold medalist, home after she was detained in Russia for bringing vape cartridges with hashish oil into the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Eaddy and members of Win With Black Women\u00a0wrote the Biden administration\u00a0in July, demanding more be done to secure Griner\u2019s freedom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you see a fellow American and when you see a fellow sister in such intolerable, unfair conditions, you\u2019re compelled to act and you\u2019re compelled to do something and say something and keep saying something until she\u2019s home,\u201d Eaddy told The Hill.<\/p>\n<p>Since Griner\u2019s detainment 294 days ago, Black women have been at the forefront of seeing the WNBA star\u2019s release and keeping the pressure on the administration. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The campaign We Are BG was organized, and more than 300,000 people signed a petition urging the government to create a deal to bring Griner home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was painful for so many, particularly Black women, to see another Black woman be in those harsh conditions, to just see the pain in her face,\u201d Eaddy said. \u201cIt was hard to watch. It\u2019s hard to hear about the inhumane conditions that she was forced to be in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Eaddy said Black women played a critical role in securing Griner\u2019s release.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Not only were they courageous and consistent in speaking truth to power, she said, but much of the organizing was done by a Black woman: Griner\u2019s wife, Cherelle.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Members of the WNBA, including Executive Director Terri Jackson and former star Dawn Staley, a basketball Hall of Famer and three-time Olympic gold medalist who is now the head coach of the South Carolina <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Game<\/a>cocks, also spoke out consistently on Griner\u2019s imprisonment. Griner\u2019s own team also stood in solidarity after she was sentenced to nine years in prison in August.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Vice President Harris was also a major player in securing Griner\u2019s release.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt took Black women sending a strong message to the world that we had to do everything that we could possibly do to get Brittney home,\u201d said Eaddy. \u201cIt took the work and the voices of so many that have leveraged their platforms, their individual power, to help join the corps of so many Americans, especially Black women, to say that we must bring Brittney home and we will not stop saying her name, we will not stop standing in solidarity, we will not stop pushing until she\u2019s safely home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Black women across the country could identify with Griner\u2019s story, said LaTosha Brown, a community activist and co-founder of Black Voters Matter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cPart of the reason why I think myself and so many others wanted to continue to uplift her name and this issue is because I know it is very, very easy for America to forget about Black women or to not fight for us,\u201d Brown said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPart of that is why you saw Black women come together and I think it was very intentional to affirm this notion of \u2018We Are BG.\u2019 We\u2019re feeling this and we\u2019re collectively seeing her as a part of us. And so when she\u2019s not OK, we\u2019re not OK.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Racial and gender issues hung over the the story of Griner, whose\u00a0detention in Russia was widely seen as politically motivated given Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Some argued that if male and female athletes were paid the same, Griner would not have been forced to join a Russian team in the offseason and there never would have been a possibility of her arrest.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Others said if Griner were not Black or lesbian, more would have been done sooner to secure her release.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt reminded me of the African American experience,\u201d said Brown. \u201cHow you\u2019ve just been snatched from your environment and your comfort. \u2026 [Griner] was taken and held captive against her will and there was nothing she could do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brown said she was moved to tears when she heard Thursday\u2019s announcement. She reflected on photos and videos of Griner in Russian courtrooms, the terrified look on her face and stories of the conditions Griner faced in the penal colony.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe kept getting reports that even because of her height, because of her body, that the cell that she was in was extremely cramped and not really big enough,\u201d said Brown. \u201cWe also know that she was in a prison that was created to intentionally inflict long-term consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Marcela Howell, president and CEO of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women\u2019s Reproductive Justice Agenda, said Griner should have been home all along.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cAs a Black, queer, American woman, Brittney Griner was at grave risk in a country known for its human rights violations, especially at this time when Russia is ramping up its attacks on LGBTQ people,\u201d Howell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBrittney Griner is free, but others still languish in Russian prisons,\u201d Howell added. \u201cToday, we celebrate Griner\u2019s release \u2014 tomorrow we join advocates around the world in demanding that Russia stop its human rights abuses once and for all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Eaddy said that though she is celebrating Griner\u2019s release today, she too is thinking of all those still detained \u2014 including Paul Whelan, a high-profile American who was not part of what <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>eared to be a prisoner swap that saw the U.S. release notorious arms dealer Victor Bout.<\/p>\n<p>She says she will continue to pray and advocate for \u201cthe countless other Americans wrongfully detained.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Brown added that if she could say anything to Griner today, it would be to remind her she is in the hearts of millions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would say to her, sister, we love you. Be free. Enjoy your time. Enjoy this moment with your family and just be free,\u201d said Brown.\u00a0\n<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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