As we all have learned – some of us as children and some of us as adults, the Internet is forever. Nothing that you post there ever really goes away. With the constant access we have to the Internet, it is easy for people to dig up old posts, tweets, pictures etc. People are being exposed for problematic posts. Some of these posts trace all the way back to when these people were pre-teens and teenagers. The question at hand is whether or not we hold what people have said in the past against them. Do we cancel them? If so, for how long? Is there an opportunity for change? Do any of us have the answers? And if people have different answers, which ones do we select? I am not writing this article to provide answers or even sway people in a certain direction. I am here to start a conversation.
Cancel culture mostly applies to celebrities and other large public figures. I think this is mostly because we, as the public, feel entitled to judge their lives and hold them accountable for mistakes that they have made. But honestly . . . are they mistakes? Tweets that usually resurface are pretty messed up. They are racist, sexist, colorist, homophobic, transphobic etc. Like some of the things that people have said are terrible! Are these their true feelings and they’re just giving performative apologies because they’re public figures? I am posing questions that I honestly do not have the answers for.
Where do you all stand on people who seem genuine and recognize they were ignorant in the past and want to learn? Do we teach them the error of their ways? I’m not going to lie, I have a soft spot for people who are genuinely ignorant about their problematic ways of thinking. I grew up in an under-served and “uneducated” community. I put quotation marks around uneducated because a lack of formal academic education does not equate to being completely uneducated. Anyway, when I go back home, I realize that many of the people say problematic things constantly. It is mostly because they don’t know that it is wrong. I mostly learned that certain things that people say and do were wrong when I went to college. If I had not gone away to attend college, I would have never known. Am I supposed to cancel those people – some of which are my family and close friends – because they don’t know? I definitely understand and do tell them that they are wrong, but it is impossible to educate everyone.
How do you feel about educating people with problematic pasts? One thing that I have noticed is that many people are adamant about it not being their job or duty to educate others. I think that it is completely fair, but you also shouldn’t criticize those who you have a problem educating. Personally, I have no problem educating, especially when it comes to people in my community. I do not judge people who do not share my views. I understand we all have different reasons for thinking in different ways. I used to blindly follow cancel culture until I realized that I need to assess the situation and make decisions based on my own beliefs and morals. Honestly, that’s what I think we all need to do. Make our own decisions. I don’t think we all need to agree about how we should all approach cancel culture and cancelling people. Do what is best for you.
