It's racism
They hate her because she is,
A black woman, a successful athlete and a millionaire who happens be gay. She is a proud woman.
They say she hates America because she leaves the field when the National Anthem is played. 'They' being the far right are vilifying her and saying she should be sent back to Russia because of her hatred. They say he, Whelan, is an American hero. Fact is he was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged. More lies to smear Griner's release. This doesn't mean he should not come home, he should.
Let's look at that song and the reason she leaves the field.
MORE PROOF THE U.S. NATIONAL ANTHEM HAS ALWAYS BEEN TAINTED WITH RACISM
Our current difficulty in facing our past honestly and soberly strongly suggests that we are still a long way from laying it to rest.
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“The Star-Spangled Banner” itself, including whether it should be rewritten or replaced entirely.
The very fact this controversy was surprising may be the most significant thing about it. It’s the clearest demonstration possible that even in 2016, the U.S. has barely begun dragging the unflattering aspects of its past out into the light. Part of that means facing the reality that everything about “The Star-Spangled Banner” — its lyrics, its author, and the path it took to becoming the national anthem — is inextricably bound up with America’s gruesome history of racism.
The Meaning of “The Hireling and Slave”
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By the mid-1800s, the phrase “hireling and slave” could be found in the writing of slavery’s supporters to differentiate between wage laborers and those in actual bondage. Whether this usage was adopted from “The Star-Spangled Banner” or the other way around is unclear, but William Grayson, a U.S. representative from South Carolina, even titled a famed 1855 pro-slavery poem “The Hireling and the Slave.” Grayson contended that slavery had been a “blessing” for Africans and was morally superior to a system of wage work. Grayson also described whites using a new term he had coined: a “master race.”
https://theintercept.com/2016/09/13/more-proof-the-u-s-national-anthem-has-always-been-tainted-with-racism/
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