There is no question that Novak Djokovic is one of the greatest tennis players in the history of the game. He has equaled – arguably surpassed – the accomplishments of Nadal and Federer. However, we can also make a critique of his political beliefs, without denigrating his achievements. Djokovic was detained by the Australian authorities, in January 2022, for his refusal to vaccinate before entering the country. His detention, at a hotel in Melbourne, garnered a level of sympathy.

The federal circuit and family court struck down the initial ruling canceling Djokovic’s visa. He did not help his cause by testing positive for Covid, and subsequently mingling with photographers and fans. The immigration minister, using archaic provisions of the law, had Djokovic deported. While in detention, Djokovic raised the issue of the mandatory detention of refugees, many of whom have been locked up for years. Djokovic had not raised that comparison prior to his own legal troubles, and has not raised that issue since his release.

While Djokovic was treated unfairly by the Australian Border Force (ABF), the African American bastketballer Brittney Griner, received only hostility and sneering contempt on the part of the corporate media. She experienced an unjust and harsh imprisonment in the midst of international geopolitics. Griner, an Olympic and WNBA champion, was sentenced to nine years in prison for possessing vaping cartridges that had a small amount of vaping hashish oil.

Her sentencing, in February 2022, was driven by political considerations. Moscow wanted to demonstrate that it is tough on drug smugglers. The Kremlin is not exactly sympathetic to the plight of African Americans. In Soviet times, Moscow championed the causes of not only African Americans, but also strongly supported African nations in their struggles against colonialism and racism. Not anymore – the pages of Russian state media are filled with snarling contempt for Black Lives Matter (BLM) and anti racist activists.

Griner served only a few months of her sentence; in December 2022, she was released in a prisoner swap with the United States. Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was exchanged for Griner’s early release. It is instructive to examine the prisoner exchange, and the attitudes conveyed by the corporate media towards the two individuals concerned.

Viktor Bout, an opportunistic armaments dealer, was demonised as the hyperbolic ‘merchant of death’ in the 2005 film Lord of War. To be sure, Bout’s criminal activities were motivated purely by individual greed and callous indifference to human suffering. But to denounce him as a uniquely malicious actor is the height of hyperbole.

The Watson Institute at Brown University released a study earlier this year that shows the post 9/11 US war on terror has forcibly displaced millions around the world, and undermined the ability of societies to maintain their citizens’ wellbeing. That hardly indicates any concern for human life on the part of the US government. If anyone deserves the moniker ‘merchant of death’, it is the senior personnel of the US military-industrial complex.

Griner’s return to the US, rather than being welcomed as a triumph of diplomacy, was contemptuously dismissed as an unequal and unwanted exchange. Griner, apparently, is an unworthy victim, not of the same standing as ‘hero-spy’ Paul Whelan, who remains imprisoned in the Russian federation. Sputnik news, showing its vitriolic underbelly, sneered that Griner was a ‘black lesbian drug addict’, with Moscow clinching a favourable exchange.

Griner had made comments in the past supportive of the antiracism protests in the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s killing. She made critical observations regarding racism in the police force. It is these sentiments which explain the level of hostility directed against her upon her release from Russian incarceration. Accused of ‘hating America’ – in spite of her impressive sporting achievements representing her country – Griner returned home to family and friends.

Djokovic can refuse the vaccination for Covid if he wants, but his refusal, like that of the antivaccine lobby, is that of the privileged. Nyadol Nyuon, a human rights advocate, wrote that it is the perverse height of privilege to choose to avoid a vaccine in a wealthy nation, while there are millions in less developed nations dying while waiting for the vaccine.

The antivaccine fearmongering does take in genuinely concerned people. But the danger, as Nyuon states, is to elevate fears and misinformation to the level of valid scientific reasoning. Djokovic’s refusal is the equivalent of a toddler’s tantrum, couching his rejection in the language of ‘combating oppression’ and ‘defending liberty’.

There have been other Australian sportspeople who have rebelled against authority. A breakaway segment of Australian cricketers, defying the orders of the Australian cricket authority, toured apartheid South Africa in the 1980s. Speaking out in favour of individual liberty, the rebel cricket tour defied the anti-apartheid movement, the latter demanding a complete ban on sporting events in a racially segregated South Africa.

Djokovic quickly returned to the lucrative tennis circuit; the refugees are still languishing in detention centres in Australia. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, former professional basketball player and sports commentator, highlighted the fact that individual decisions have consequences. Unvaccinated players should be removed from teams, he stated. Speaking about the importance of reaching the vaccine hesitant in minority communities, he said that it is imperative to demonstrate the vaccine’s effectiveness and overcome the mistrust of government initiatives among ethnic minority groups.

Djokovic used his status to elevate vaccine hesitancy based on fear and ignorance. Rather than address vaccine hesitation for the purpose of overcoming mistrust, he used his position to enable the already privileged to hide behind the language of ‘oppression’. Brittney Griner deserves our support, because she was the victim of actual oppression.