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El American’s Idiocy of the Week once again stars leftist network MSNBC, which on the occasion of Brittney Griner’s release complained about racism in America, in an updated article from half a year ago in which they accused America of racism… for failing to free Brittney Griner.
In an op-ed for MSNBC, racial justice and gender equality activist Natalie Johnson shows us that for her everything, absolutely everything, even one thing and its opposite, are matters of racial injustice and gender inequality. What a coincidence.
In July of this year, while the basketball player was still imprisoned in Russia, she wrote the article titled “Why Brittney Griner’s peril is felt by all Black women in America.” Now, once Brittney Griner has been released after her exchange for the Russian criminal known as “The Merchant of Death” was negotiated, MSNBC has updated the article by titling it “Brittney Griner is finally freed, but her peril is that of Black women in America.”
One might think that the article refers to the danger that people carrying drugs in their luggage could face in some parts of America – as happened to the player in Russia – but no, the problem, it seems, is that because of the salary gap, Brittney Griner has had to accept an offer from a Russian team.
It seems that for the columnist the only thing secondary and irrelevant in the arrest of Brittney Griner is that she was an American citizen committing an alleged crime just when the war against Ukraine was breaking out. If she was arrested, it was because she was a woman, black and a lesbian. It is strange that the writer does not think that she was also detained for being too tall, as that sure makes someone short like Putin very angry.
To justify her paranoid view of systemic American racism, the journalist gives other examples in which black female athletes have been endangered because of their skin pigmentation and female genitalia. According to Natalie Johnson, super-famous tennis player Serena Williams nearly died in childbirth of her daughter in 2017 because doctors preferred to make her suffer and not spend money on a test that would prove that the exaggerated labor pains she complained of were due to clots in her lungs.
According to the writer, the racism of the doctors was such that made them think that no one would be interested in Serena Williams’ death. This might fit if it were a WNBA athlete, which after all, not even the feminists themselves are interested in, but being one of the highest-paid and highest-ranked tennis players in the WTA, the MSNBC journalist’s argument is laughable.
MSNBC on the WNBA salary gap
Making some mental pirouettes worthy of Olympic gold, the columnist links it all to the vaunted wage gap. According to her, the terrible wage gap is what forces women athletes, especially those of color, to play for foreign teams.
What her flexible neurons are unable to connect is the relationship between NBA and WNBA revenues and salaries respectively, even though she knows the data, because she puts it in his article. “The NBA’s annual revenues are $7.92 billion, while the WNBA’s $60 million — far less than the combined salaries of NBA players Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook,” the writer explains.
Despite knowing the facts, the only conclusion she draws is that this income disparity translates into less media coverage, which is why no one seemed to care that Griner was in jail in Russia.
The funny thing about the case is that, first of all, since she was arrested, there has been more talk in the WNBA media than ever before. Secondly, now that she has been traded for the arms dealer, it is the first time a trade of a women’s basketball player has made headlines in America, and probably the most expensive in the history of the country.
But most lacerating of all, the one no one remembers is poor Paul Whelan, a former American Marine imprisoned in Russia since 2018 who has been left out of the exchange and rotting in a Russian jail. Meanwhile, MSNBC tries to convince us of some kind of white privilege.
This former Marine will have to grow a few inches, perceive herself as a woman, lesbian, black, hate the anthem and the American flag, and complain about the pay gap to be considered.
Ignacio Manuel García Medina, Business Management teacher. Artist and lecturer specialized in Popular Culture for various platforms. Presenter of the program "Pop Libertario" for the Juan de Mariana Institute. Lives in the Canary Islands, Spain // Ignacio M. García Medina es profesor de Gestión de Empresas. Es miembro del Instituto Juan de Mariana y conferenciante especializado en Cultura Popular e ideas de la Libertad.
Social Networks: @ignaciomgm