To Cancel or Not to Cancel?

This article is part of our Fall 2020 print issue. See the full, digital version of the issue here.

Discussions surrounding race, gender, religion, sexuality, diversity, and inclusion can be uncomfortable—period. Where do you start? Will you say something insensitive? Are you more ignorant than you originally thought? Society today is too fractured to ignore these discussions. Instead of retreating in defeat after making a mistake, now is the time to step up and become more educated and aware.

Models Paige Wilson, Maddy Starr, Gaby Jimenez photographed by Mel Jones.

Education and growth are slow processes, as we’ve seen from the centuries-long lack of systemic change. Historically marginalized groups have been suffering the wrath of ignorance since the dark ages, making frustration only natural. Many of us cannot even begin to relate. A consequence of this frustration has been shutting out those who are unaware and uneducated. The catch word for this is “cancel culture.”

“Cancel culture can be quite harmful because it eliminates the conversations that we need to have,” says Gaby Jimenez ’21, Intersect Conference student director for Elon University’s Center for Race, Ethnicity, & Diversity Education.

Elon’s annual Intersect Conference is an opportunity for students, staff, and faculty to discuss the topics of diversity in leadership. The purpose of this conference is to create a space for uncomfortable conversations to occur. This year’s theme was “20/20 enVISIONing a New Way,” with an emphasis on civic engagement, personal wellness, and social justice.

Paige Wilson ’22, the Gender and LGBTQIA Center’s (GLC) student director for the conference, agrees with Jimenez about cancel culture. “I think it’s important to call people in,” says Wilson, a human service studies major with a psychology minor. Rather than calling people out and potentially alienating them from a difficult conversation, Wilson explains the benefits of “calling people in.”

“If you educate and provide the resources, or even show people where to look for the resources,” says Wilson, “then I feel like that’s more beneficial to our society and helping us move forward instead of just blocking people immediately and ‘canceling them.’”

In May 2020, Amy Cooper—a white woman walking her dog—called the police on Christian Cooper (no relation)—a Black man birdwatching in Central Park. Christian Cooper filmed the encounter and posted it on Facebook, which garnered significant media attention. Amy Cooper subsequently lost her job and was shunned on social media. In other words, Amy Cooper was canceled.

Amy Cooper, a well-educated woman and a suspected liberal voter, acted in an inherently racist manner. Is Amy Cooper inherently racist, or is she uneducated in matters of diversity and racial bias? Should Amy Cooper have been “called in” to learn about these subjects, or was it appropriate to cancel her?

This is admittedly an uncomfortable way of thinking about the situation. What Amy Cooper did is demonstrative of inherent racial bias and discrimination. But at what point is it acceptable to cancel people? When should we choose to hold people accountable instead and aim to have a productive discussion?

“I think that there is some truth to cancel culture, and there are some valid points as to why there are certain people who get canceled for certain reasons,” says Wilson. “But I think before you get to that point, there needs to be an educational period just in case it’s because they’re ignorant. However, you can only do that so many times before brands, institutions, people keep making the same mistakes even after you’ve provided them with the resources.”

Maddy Starr ’23, the Center for Leadership Intersect student director, gives an example of cancel culture in regards to white privilege. Starr poses the hypothetical situation of a BIPOC friend canceling her for an unintentionally offensive act.

“What would that teach me?” says Starr, an international and global studies major with minors in political science and interreligious studies. “I really like what Paige said about calling people in, instead of calling people out—saying like, ‘Come in, let’s talk about it, let’s have a conversation.’ I still have so much more to learn, but I also wouldn’t be in a position where I’m planning and facilitating a leadership and diversity conference if I hadn’t been called in. It’s important to hold people accountable so they can be educated, so they can grow.”

Wilson reflects on coming out at 16 and how she turned to Google and Buzzfeed to learn about the LGBTQ+ community. “If people had canceled me, like 2016 me, without giving me any space and time to grow and learn and be corrected in very blunt situations,” says Wilson, “then I would’ve never been where I am today. I think there definitely is value in educating people before you straight up say ‘bye.’”

The district attorney of Manhattan is prosecuting Amy Cooper for falsely reporting an incident, according to CNN. Christian Cooper is not cooperating with the prosecution, however, because he feels that this “lets white people off the hook” from reflecting on their own prejudices.

Amy Cooper is just one racially prejudiced person amongst many who happened to be caught in the act. After losing her job and her dog and being publicly shamed, does Amy Cooper understand why what she did was wrong? Should her case have more emphasis on education and dialogue? Both reflecting on the event and the event itself are uncomfortable, but a discussion might be warranted.

“There are many cases where people do need to be called out,” Starr says, emphasizing the importance of empathy in these difficult conversations. “You have to keep pushing at it, but you also have to keep connecting with people to make sure you’re both on the same page. They understand where you’re coming from, you understand where they’re coming from and how you can compromise and make it work. Easier said than done, but that’s my take.”

Education, awareness, and discussion are important, but until there are feasible solutions that can actively be enacted, people, brands, and institutions will not advance toward inclusivity and diversity. “It does take more work and more brain power—it’s harder. And it’s easier to just fall back,” says Wilson. “Falling back is not going to progress us in society at all.”

“We can talk all we want about more equity and more equality, but nothing is going to change until they’re really put into action,” says Starr. “Keeping the momentum up [is important], so that way these conversations are not just conversations, but they’re policies that are being enacted to actually create change.”

Change is daunting, especially when you don’t know where to start. Start small by looking at your personal biases, then focus on the community around you.

“From the Intersect Conference, I learned that students have a lot of power,” says Jimenez. “[Dr. Randy Williams, vice president and associate provost for Inclusive Excellence,] told us to be bold in our actions. I think that’s really true because I saw a lot of presentations with faculty or staff, and with students, who would use the students in a way to touch on these topics or start these conversations. It made me really think about how much power students have and how much they can actually and truly change the things that are happening on campus.”