Ryan Lochte knew what he was doing the moment he came up with that incredulous lie about being robbed at gunpoint in Brazil. However, I’m going to explain this after I build up the context of this main idea.
Ryan Lochte was raised in New York by a Cuban mother and a Dutch/German/English father. Eventually, his family moved to Florida so his father could coach swimming. In fact, Ryan would be present during many of these swimming classes. However, he would always be caught misbehaving. So much that Ryan was noted for being “in the showers” for punishment instead of actually having fun swimming.
Now, let us keep that (his behavior and the reaction to it) in mind as we fast-forward to the present debacle that Ryan Lochte has found himself in.
The Ryan Lochte Cause
At the present moment, Lochte is in hot water for his actions in Rio. Claiming to be robbed at gunpoint by assailants (or police or whatever the hell he created in his lie), he ended up leaving the South American country. And who could blame him: Rio has an incessant poverty problem where people will steal from you with little shame. And it was all making sense until evidence proved something more sinister; it showed Ryan Lochte being the perpetrator of the criminal activity.
And this criminal activity wasn’t just simple disorderly conduct. Ryan Lochte, and three other fellow swimmers, managed to trash a gas station and actually escape in a cab. Instead of being responsible human beings about it, Lochte decided to spin one of the best yarns this side of paul Bunyan. The lies, drunken foolishness, and Ryan Lochte’s eventual escape from Brazil actually put a blemish on the already bruised reputation of the United States.
The Ryan Lochte Effect
And then the typical happened: someone wrote their actions off as “small stuff”. In fact, it was Mario Andrada (spokesman of the Brazilian Olympic organizers) that tried to make a mistake of marginalizing what had happened. Andrada mentioned “let’s give these kids a break” and that “sometimes you take actions that you later regret. Let’s move on”. I am not sure what he was trying to actually accomplish for Lochte. It did make many of us realize one thing: white privilegeis even a rampant issue within Brazil.
Now that I have built up the context of what Ryan Lochte had going on, it is quite hard to expect some form of sincere apology and retribution. Many of us already knew that this would be a blow-over issue. Also, there is the issue with the lack of critical response to his actions. Lochteness Monster may be a fan favorite of many in America. However, that doesn’t give him clearance to snake his way out of being reprimanded.
And why not? White privilege reigns supreme.
We can’t be shocked that the golden boy-sans reality TV stardom has only received a slap on the wrist (if that). Truthfully, white privilege is batting 1.000 when it comes to entitled Caucasian swimmers. Before, I understood that white privilege allowed for swimmers to get lighter sentences on rape. Now, natives of a foreign land can dismiss the destructive actions of a 32 year old man as youthful ignorance. Reality has to be stranger than fiction because you can’t make this stuff up.
Ryan Lochte Privileged Epilogue
I will be glad when all people would admit that white privilege is an incessant thorn in America’s side. It has gotten to the point that white men can do disorderly things and be dismissed as troubling teenagers. What is even sadder is the fact that these actions are nothing new. Ryan Lochte’s situation are dream circumstances for anyone with a pale complexion. In the end, white privilege has made being a white swimmer the popular occupation for those to escape true punishment for their transgressions.
White privilege has become a moral get-out-of-jail-free card in the global society.