Brittney Griner exposes Putin’s exploitation of racial tensions in America in a new memoir

The memoir of WNBA superstar Britney Griner, co-authored by New York Times bestselling creator Michelle Buford, debuted at No. 1 on Amazon’s bestseller list and received dazzling reviews for honesty and intimacy.

At one point in her memoir, Griner questioned how far the Black Lives Matter movement has gone against black queer people, writing that she believed Russian President Vladimir Putin used her detention and imprisonment as a bargaining chip.

“Black lives matter. We hear it on the streets, but how much are black lives really value? Judging by our history, it doesn’t appear to be much, and when you’re gay, even less. For Putin, my value was being a pawn. My arrest gave him a bonus in his clash with the West. “He was well aware of the long history of racial tension in America and knew how to use it to his advantage,” she wrote.

Griner detailed her disappointment in the idea that she had brought shame and disgrace to the family’s name upon receiving news of her arrest. “I cried because I let my father down. Griner’s name has now been sullied throughout the world: moron, drug dealer, stupid. It hurt because I knew I had given the world a weapon. When you’re black, your behavior is never just about you. It’s about your entire community.”

Griner also described bouts of depression and disgust on the shower conditions in the Russian prison where she was initially held.

“It was horrible, exposed pipes on every wall,” she wrote. “Long strands of hair are all over the floor and collecting in the drains. A bloody tampon was stuffed between two tubes. As disgusted as I was by the scene, I was equally repulsed by the stench. I stripped down and found the cleanest part of the floor. I turned on the tap and rusty brown water came out. I closed my eyes tightly, trying to forget where I was. I thought about Relle (her wife Cherelle), the house and everything I had left behind. Water dripped from my dreadlocks onto the floor, splashing the hell I had endured. I sat there for a good 30 minutes until I knocked on the door for the guard to let me out. It was the nastiest shower I’ve ever taken. That was the best too.”

When Griner was transferred to a different, more notorious Russian penal colony, her depression deepened and he or she cut her hair short. “I was frozen, sick, had my hair cut,” she wrote. “The girl I was was lying on a pile of dreadlocks on the concrete floor. (…) In a labor camp in Russia in the middle of winter, I found out how tough I am.”

Griner also revealed that letters from family and friends kept her awake while she waited. She was released in December 2022 in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, often called the “Merchant of Death.”

Griner does resumed play in the WNBA in the Phoenix Mercury team, which drafted its first overall pick in 2013. Griner can also be currently seeing a therapist and is an outspoken advocate for the United States, which secured the discharge of Paul Whelan, a former Marine held in Russia since 2018 on suspicion of espionage.

The United States denies the accusations. However, Griner wrote that she “will not rest until Paul Whelan is fired.”