We all remember the controversy of this year’s Summer Olympics. We watched, our eyes glued to not NBC but CNN, as the absolute mess that was Lochtegate unfolded. We watched Ryan Lochte and his fellow teammates attempt to lie their way out of a sticky situation that can only arise after a night of too much drinking in a foreign city. Which, while may be unexpected by America’s golden swimmer boy, is relatively reasonable- when you combine drunken rage and language barriers, things can get ugly pretty quickly.
However, what is definitely not okay is when Lochte attempted to exploit our skewed perception of Brazil to his benefit. All it takes is a semi-celebrity to utter the words ‘robbed’ and ‘gun’ in a city like Brazil where many see it as a place where violence runs loose, for everyone to jump on his side. So when Lochte told America this incredible story of how he escaped a life-or-death situation, we awed at his bravery and were ready to seek vengenece. In fact, it was Brazilian police forces, not American forces, that sensed something was not right, and what do you know- their B.S detector was on point.
Lochtegate showed us what many people of color knew all along: white boys lie and their privilege lets them get away with it.
When a black man talks, his words are automatically questioned. When we speak, we often have to convince people of the validity of our statements. However, when a white man talks, his words are taken as truth- no questions asked. So the fact that Lochte’s details were vague and that there was no video showing his initial account really didn’t matter to the majority of the country because it never crossed their mind to even question him. And this, this is what irks me. Not only that Lochte basically escaped lying to an entire country and undermining the forces of another country with a slap on the wrist, but the fact that he is still relevant to today’s society
. America’s golden boy lied and instead of us showing any sign of condemning him, we invite him onto our televisions. If it’s not a T.V show it’s a talk show interview or a documentary. Nothing about what he did should be condoned in any way, and yet here we are patting him on the back for exaggerating racist stereotypes for his own benefit.We are being forced to watch someone flounder in life outside of the Olympics and recieve a second chance from the public when so many others were not.
I just can’t see this play out if Lochte wasn’t a White male. Uh, she’s pulling the race card again? Yes! Because if Ryan Lochte wasn’t a white male then he would be exiled from both the world of sports and any chance of making it in the entertainment business. America is already uneasy when it comes to Black male. Institutionalized racism causes us to see a black face and automatically think of violence, of fear, of crime.
So if a Black male would have lied on television, vandalized a store, and was caught on tape being drunk and disorderly- all bets would have been off. Our media would have used this one event to justify the behavior of literally every black male. Guranteed, our society would have roasted him endlessly, and none of this “give him a break, he’s only a kid” or “boys will be boys” business would have been anywhere in sight. Lochte was given this second chance to dance his way back onto America’s good side simply because he is a White male, and we shouldn’t be this willing to just accept him with open arms. Lochte’s role on Dancing with the Stars is merely another white person immensely benefiting from their privilege.
