Over the past few weeks, after the news broke of SNL’s
firing of Shane Gillis for making racist jokes against Chinese, I heard the
term, cancel culture, more and more. I wasn’t sure what it was. When it comes
to the massive world of social media, I’m somewhat of a novice. Yes, I’m on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but I don’t follow of a lot of people or really
pay attention to current trends. I decided to investigate and write about
cancel culture. What I found was overwhelming and left me unsure of what my
stance would be. So, my goal of this post is an examine of what cancel is and
how people are using it, reacting to it and give my thoughts on whether it is
necessary.
Cancel culture, as described by Wikipedia, is “a form of
public shaming that aims to hold an individual and groups accountable by
calling attention to behavior, usually on social media, that is perceived as
problematic.” It is also referred to as call out culture or outrage culture. It
is essentially a boycott of a person, usually a celebrity, when he or she has
shared a questionable or unpopular opinion or has behaved in a manner that is
perceived as offensive. The person is “canceled” when a large group of fans
completely boycott the individual’s work causing loss of jobs, massive declines
in the celebrity’s career and fanbase. For example, when Rosanne Barr made the
racist comment about Valerie Jarrett, she lost her reboot show. This opinion,
statement or behavior can be from the present; however, more and more
celebrities are being canceled for things said and done in the distant past.
Kevin Hart was canceled earlier this year, and lost his job hosting the Oscar
because of a joke he made on Twitter several years before. However, canceling
of a celebrity is rarely permanent. For celebrities like Taylor Swift, the
offense was quickly forgotten and she’s back on top with a bestseller
album.
Some have called cancel culture an extreme form of the PC
culture and the popular catch all to describe a social justice warrior agenda
(Butler, 2018). One author from an online magazine makes the argument that we
have always lived in a cancel culture (Semiramis, 2019) and various people from
history as examples. Alice Bell, who developed a cure for leprosy has
essentially been “canceled” since she is a black woman and her contribution has
been hidden. Alan Turing invented one of the core concepts of computer science
but since he was gay, his name lives in obscurity. Today’s cancel culture is
simply the minorities, the oppressed, reclaiming their power and fighting back
(Semiramis, 2019). Some have even claimed that a cancel culture doesn’t exist
as some who have been “cancelled” themselves back in the public’s good graces
as time goes by (Butler, 2018). Others have claimed that there is only critics
of cancel culture because most “victims” are usually white men (Semiramis,
2019) and they aren’t used to being held accountable for their actions. However,
more and more victims of cancel culture are minorities and women who don’t
always follow the new PC culture.
There is an equal argument against cancel culture. According
to critics, the problem with cancel culture is the methods used to cancel
certain people and ideas. “A small number of online progressives have appointed
themselves a moral vanguard” to expose a transgression and enforce a punishment
through a “digital mob” (Linker, 2019). It is an attempt to police American
culture, to draw a line on what is acceptable in life and especially comedy as
seen in the outrage over jokes made by some stand-up comedians. The most
current comedian to be in the spotlight due to cancel culture is Dave Chappelle
after his Netflix special Sticks and Stones ignited a firestorm online.
Taylor Swift, a victim of cancel culture, spoke out against it, saying that
cancelling someone can send the wrong, even tragic, message. Dr. Pamela Paresky
calls cancel culture apocalyptic. “An apocalyptic culture is not interested in
wounded hearts. It wants to destroy, not heal. It wants retribution for moral
impurities, not forgiveness” (Paresky, 2019). Cancel culture is born out of a
knee jerk reaction instead of asking “why did he say that?” (Paresky, 2019). As
Wesley Morris writes in this article, The Morality War, the intent is
ignored and only what is said is what matters (2018).
As I said earlier, this topic was very overwhelming. It took
several days of reading article after article and gathering my own thoughts
about cancel culture to be able to sit down and write this post. On one hand,
it is important to call each other for things that are wrong and hopefully help
them see the error in their statement. On the other hand, cancel culture really
isn’t doing that. Cancel culture also doesn’t allow for a person to change
their minds. Say someone made a statement twenty years ago and someone calls
him or her out on it in the present, the outrage usually ignores any statement
made since that clearly shows that the person no longer believes in the past
statement. Cancel culture is essentially shunning, a Scarlet letter for the
world to see. It is an extreme form of a boycott and in most cases, it is
downright bullying. It’s one thing to call for a boycott to hurt a company or
individual’s bottom-line, like the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1995-1956). However,
it is entirely different to destroy their lives. Some in the cancel culture
frenzy have called for the offender’s death and the death of his or her family!
In conclusion, the motives behind cancel culture is on the
right track. We need to call each other out when statements or actions are made
that are harmful. However, if I don’t something an actor, artist, writer or
even politician has said or done that I don’t like, I simply stop watching their
movies/TV shows, stop buying their music or book and I won’t vote for them for
political positions. I will stop following them on social media. However, I
will not call for them to be harmed or even killed. Cancel culture leaves no
room for correction, no open dialogue. No opportunity to prove the statement
wrong. It is essentially “I don’t like what you said, so you must disappear.” As you can see from the pictures I have found online, there are many in social media who question the firestorm of cancel culture. We
can do better than that. Most of my research has shown me that there are plenty
of people who are tired of the cancel culture and very few who see its merits.
References
Paresky, Pamela B. June 19, 2019. The Apocalyptic Cult of
Cancel Culture. Psychology Today.
