WNBA star Brittney Griner, of the Phoenix Mercury, says she’ll stay in the locker room before each game until the National Anthem is over, or until the team stops playing The Star-Spangled Banner entirely. It’s a form of protest against police brutality and racial injustice. Why is that song so important before sporting events? Why not shut it off?
Related: To Stand Up for Racial Justice and Police Reform, Stand Up for the National Anthem [Right Angle]
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Bill Whittle Network ยท Shut It Off: WNBA Star Brittney Griner Wants National Anthem Silenced at Games
8 replies on “Shut It Off: WNBA Star Brittney Griner Wants National Anthem Silenced at Games”
They could display their middle finger or turn around, bend over, and drop their pants, but who would believe them when they claimed it was not intended as a slam against our country? It’s all about the optics.
Here’s an example of a sports league doing exactly what Bill discusses.
Bill is absolutely correct in this being the wrong way to go about making a statement. The flag and anthem stand for all of us, every American citizen. Those symbols stand for ALL of us with no distinction between ANY of us. If you turn your back on those symbols, kneel in protest when they’re played or displayed, or refuse to come out of the locker room while they’re being played or displayed, you are spitting in the face of your fellow Americans. It doesn’t really matter how you define your statement because that is the result of your actions.
If I go out and stand in a busy intersection to protest anything at all and I get hit by a car, the car didn’t hit me because I was protesting something. It didn’t hit me because the driver disagrees with my protest. It hit me because I was standing in a busy intersection.
If you make a protest statement during the National Anthem or at the display of the Flag of the United States of America, you’re going to get run over by loyal, America loving people. Your statement doesn’t get the attention you want, it just makes people dislike you and your cause.
I cannot even count the number of times I’ve heard someone say something to the effect of “I’m not going to watch (xyz) as long as those people insult our country.” Every single one of those who say that, and I’m included in that number, does not want nor agree with Americans being killed wrongly by any government authority no matter what color the victims are.
Nailed it!!!
Damn. Now I’ll have to stop watching the WNBA games that I’ve been not watching for 24 years
I think Bill hit it spot on with how the framing of these particular protests would have been so much better. Stand for the anthem, then take a knee (almost as if in prayer) in a public show of support for whatever cause. That would have gotten much broader based support.
If this woman’s claim that her lack of participation in the national anthem has nothing to do with the flag or the nation, then she should stand and salute the flag publicly in an effort to gain solidarity with her fellow citizens. The fact that she refuses to stand and pay respects to the flag and the national anthem means that she has no intention to gain solidarity, rather her intention is one of divisiveness and spectacle. Such individuals deserve no respect or consideration.
I don’t report all this idea, but we must either stand together or fail as individuals.
I don’t even have to listen to this video to come to the conclusion that the best solution is to just fire this particular player. Since she doesn’t want to have anything to do with the national anthem, she shouldn’t have anything to do with a national pastime such as basketball. Any extortion efforts to shut down the pregame playing of the national anthem should be met with equally Draconian consequences. In short, if she doesn’t like the rules of the house, then she can get out.
Now, I’m ready to listen to Bill’s perspective.