Like we all do every four years, the entire world has been tracking the events of the Olympics. These events not only include extremely competitive athletic games but they also include the athletes’ activities outside of the arena. Pop culture has honed in on Gabby Douglas’ hair and her decision to not put her hand over her heart during the national anthem; Simone Biles rubbing elbows with Zac Efron; Ellen DeGeneres catching fire for the meme of her riding Usain Bolt’s back, and of course Ryan Lochte’s deliberate lie of being robbed at a Brazilian gas station.
Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada released an official statement saying, “I do not regret having apologized. No apologies from him or other athletes are needed. We have to understand that these kids came here to have fun. Let’s give these kids a break. Sometimes you make decisions that you later regret. They had fun, they made a mistake, life goes on.”
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Mind you Ryan Lochte, 32, Jack Conger, 21, and Gunnar Bentz, 20, are all legal adults according to the United States law. Though Bentz isn’t legally able to consume alcoholic beverages and gain admission into 21+ clubs, he is old enough to be tried as an adult in criminal court. Though while they were away in Rio for the Olympics, these three American adults committed crimes that are punishable in the United States, but the public was asked to “give these kids a break.”
Amongst a lie discovered and the truth revealed, Lochte was reportedly drunk and out of control. On the night in question the team had stopped at a gas station to use the restroom after a party. It was there that the men urinated in the public, committed vandalism, and damaged the gas station’s restroom. We’re told that "they had fun," "they made a mistake" and that "life goes on."
Andrada was absolutely right. Life does go on because Lochte, Conger, and Bentz are white “kids.”
According to a research published by the American Psychological Association, black males as young as 10-years-old are more likely to be perceived guilty and face police violence than that of their white peers. Their research, which evaluated 176 police officers, who were mostly white, middle-aged males, proved that the dehumanization of and prejudice against blacks was in direct correlation with the violent encounters black children are subjected to while in custody.
Within their study they also evaluated 264 undergraduate students of mainly white females which concluded that this group of individuals found that black children, ages 10 and older, are significantly less innocent than children of other racial backgrounds.
The highly publicized deaths of Tamir Rice, 12, Trayvon Martin, 17, and Michael Brown, 18, were coupled with justifications from White America calling the children thugs and saying what they should or should not have been doing. They were just being kids, contrary to what Andrada considers that to be. The most significant difference between these black children and those white children is that America perceives black children as older, less innocent and more violent than they truly are.
“The Talk” in the black community has become less of the birds and the bees and more of avoiding being killed or brutalized by the police. Black parents should not have to watch as the killings and brutalization draw nearer and nearer to their own back yards. Black parents should not be burying their children because a cowardly and under prepared police officer refuses to properly handle a situation, especially the non-violent ones.
Like the majority of white men and women in America, Lochte, Conger and Bentz were able to see another day in order to issue an apology. That opportunity, as well as their lives and freedom, is constantly denied to black men, women and children on all ends of this country.
Bravo, America, for once again allowing your racism to show and proving that white privilege exists.
