If there’s one thing heterosexual, middle-aged white men love more than anything, it’s being the expert on everything that’s ever happened. Specifically, they love to insert their opinion over minority voices while claiming that they, an entirely separate third party, have all the answers.

Such is the case with freestyle skier Eileen Gu. I won’t lie, she’s pretty controversial. But it’s also very hard to walk that line — growing up Asian in the United States is challenging enough on its own. Thus, her decision to ski for China and her desire to stay diplomatic and represent both sides is fairly admirable. It’s also garnered criticism and mixed reactions from both sides. 

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In some ways, her switch makes sense. Her American father never seemed to be in the picture, and being raised by a single mother who took her to China regularly, it’s understandable why she might feel obligated to one side. The U.S. is also one of the only countries that doesn’t fund its Olympic athletes. Gu has several sponsors and partners, from Red Bull to Cadillac. Would it be the same if she had stayed with the U.S.?

I admit that, objectively, Gu’s decision to represent China at the Olympic Games is one wrapped in complexity. But for some reason, some have taken this as a go-ahead for free-range violations. 

In a podcast-style YouTube video titled “Globalist Traitor Eileen Gu Returns to America,” Crowder, the host and a white, middle-aged man, opens in the first 90 seconds by calling then-18 year-old Gu “hot.” He then quickly asserts that “now we have someone who wants to ski for China because she can get a Victoria’s Secret catalog.” Aside from this being completely uncalled for, isn’t sexualizing a young athlete just icky? 

At the two-minute mark, he says, “Gu, as she’s known — that’s her nickname,” at which point another host makes fun of how it sounds. First of all, it’s not her nickname, it’s her last name — an ethnic last name at that. Not only that, but to see these white men with a platform make fun of her name is disgusting and frankly immature. How little of an argument do you have to have, to resort to directing microaggressions at a name?

Later in the video, Crowder switches his voice to fake a Chinese accent. I’m beyond mortified — I’m enraged at this point. In the comments, viewers applaud the hosts.

A particularly memorable moment is when he says in reference to Gu, “By the way, Chinese women don’t need you as an inspiration.” As an Asian woman, I find it incredibly fascinating that this self-designated spokesperson is all of a sudden an expert on what young Chinese girls need. It’s a classic example of savior-complex white male privilege. Or maybe I’m mistaken, and they’re actually aspiring young skiers using highly advanced deepfakes. 

This type of personal, grossly targeted aggression isn’t just limited to this channel, unfortunately. In a clip from “Real Time with Bill Maher,” host Maher, an elderly white man, stated, “Someone has to tell China: You can steal our trade secrets, our software and our intellectual property, but we draw the line at our hot freestyle skiers.” The crowd laughed and clapped. 

At the six-minute mark, Maher demonstrated his lessons in cultural sensitivity and Ivy League education, saying, “Some of Gu’s defenders say it’s racist to ask if she’s still an American citizen and she herself won’t say. Why is that racist? Why was it racist to think that COVID might have originated from a lab leak as opposed to from eating bats? Besides the fact that COVID came from eating gross, weird food seems way more racist than the idea that it came from a high-tech lab?” 

After a quick Google search, Maher is cited as a comedian. But I’m not quite sure when we decided to equate racism and macro — not even micro — aggressions with “haha, funny.” 

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Fox & Friends Co-Host Will Cain (again, a middle-aged white man) said “it is incredibly … ungrateful for [Gu] to betray, turn her back on the country that not just raised her, but turned her into a world-class skier with the training and facilities that only the United States of America can provide.” 

But think about the NBA player Giannis Antetokounmpo. Born and raised in Greece, Athenian professional basketball infrastructure pales in comparison to the NBA — proof that while structure does help, it is largely an athlete’s raw ability that determines their success. The system doesn’t matter if the natural talent isn’t there. 

Cain closes off by comparing Gu to an ungrateful child who moves “somewhere else after being raised in a warm home.” But I argue that a home is supposed to be a hearth that accepts you for who and how you are. I’m not sure whether comments like “Is the Chinese girl behind the white girl we just saw five pictures of?” and “hiding behind a mogul, skiing on top of a nuclear reactor at the Beijing games” are particularly telling of a warm or inclusive home. 

It’s one thing to criticize individual decisions or policies. It’s another to grossly oversexualize, attack one’s identity and be openly racist toward someone on live national television. 

I’m grateful for this space and the semester I’ve had with my inaugural column to discuss such issues. As a Korean American woman who was born in Daejeon but raised in Texas, never quite fit in and regularly engages with historically white sports, I feel for her.

In the game and out, I can attest to the numerous times I’ve been walked and talked over. If you’re tired of hearing about it, imagine how tired we feel. 

Victoria Lee is a sophomore writing about diversity and representation in sports. Her column, “The Chairlift,” runs every other Wednesday.