Step 4: Replace Cancel Culture with Challenge Culture. Engage Passionately and Respectfully. But Engage.

These posts have been focused on the cold, gray space between the chaotic sparks of outrage and the steady hands of progress. So today I’m very conflicted, as I intended to write about the ills of ‘cancel culture’ (definition at the bottom of this post) and why we need to get rid of it.

As such, I wanted to talk about the nuances of CrossFit compared to Starbucks, Lady A(ntebellum) compared to the Dixie Chicks, the show Cops and the movie Gone With the Wind, and heck, I even wanted to hop in a time machine and revisit Paula Deen and Michael Richards (the zany and lovable Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld).

I’m going to do my best to get there, but right now, in my bones, I’m tired and I’m really okay with some things being cancelled.

Below I present both rant and rationality.

Rant:

This morning when I woke up, I saw an article about Anthropologie and a disturbing history and ongoing system of racial profiling. And I got angry. I didn’t want to “Engage Respectfully” I wanted their empire toppled. I wanted every person I know to mass-return any purchases, I wanted accountability. I wanted people fired, and I wanted a personal apology for the moments over the years in which I shopped at that store for my wife, and suspected something peculiar was in the air. To be black in many American stores is to constantly walk a line between being gaslit that your feelings of perceived otherness and its effects on the behavior of employees is paranoia. As a quick anecdote of personal significance: Always conscious of this shopping-while-black phenomena, I recall my parents’ extreme hesitation in taking me to the high-end mall in Westchester as a teen when I needed my iMac fixed. They would quicker cross state lines to avoid and shield me from the glares I was sometimes blind to of patrons and employees alike. Alas, this newly revealed institutional horror from Anthropologie - this moment of validation by current and previous employees - was the final shingle I needed for my house of second-generation righteous indignation. Let’s cancel Anthropologie!

Between that moment (just a few hours ago) and this moment, I’ve seen news reports of Donald Trump’s upcoming insensitive, tone-deaf, and mid-pandemic dog-whistle of a rally on Juneteenth in Tulsa, the 60th anniversary of a horrible violent and fatal KKK rally. I’ve seen reports that citizens of Klamath Falls, Oregon armed themselves to the teeth to fight a fabricated enemy in Antifa who has been conflated for their purposes with BLM. I’ve seen articles outlining how an Ohio State Senator (AND PHYSICIAN) casually suggested poor hygiene habits of African Americans could be responsible for their increased incidents of Covid-19, which isn’t even a dog-whistle, it’s just synonyms for “Those n****ers don’t know how to wash their hands!” Mr. Senator, black people are dying from Covid for a handful of reasons - increased comorbidities and “essential worker” careers connected to socioeconomic factors inextricably linked to generations of systemic racism, but also in no small part because they can have biased, discriminatory doctors like you year-round, who studies have shown us are more likely to dismiss health concerns when they appear, and worse. Unlike many republicans consciously eschewing hand-washing as a solution (there’s a real study - go look it up) I assure you, this N**** knows how to wash his hands.

So there you have it: A snapshot of my pre-Noon passion and frustration.

Rationality:

Now, let’s put on our rational hats, even if those hats don’t feel like they fit in post-George Floyd America:

The bulk of what I just shared is information I was confronted with, and grappled with, in less than an hour. I shared my menagerie of feelings, frustrations, rage, confusion, hurt, validation, and the occasional glimmer of hope. But who on earth has time for all these feelings? In the famous words of Kimberly Wilkins, better known as Sweet Brown, “Ain’t NOBODY got time for that.”

That barrage of feelings were highly and directly correlated to a barrage of information. It’s my assertion that this is a key reason why Cancel Culture exists. In a world where we are inundated with information, from cable news, Facebook feeds, and annoying little news alerts on our phones, our dopamine levels are subjected to Mach-5 influxes of stories, and one of the best ways to deal with the things we find unsavory is to cancel them.

Yesterday, I said this post would be about how we overcome Cancel Culture and engage respectfully. In effect, my stance was going to be that we Cancel “Cancel Culture” - but I don’t really think that’s the move anymore. I think we overhaul it and we replace it with “Challenge Culture”. (This admittedly gets tricky because we’re talking about a sociological phenomenon but I am determined to stay focused on our individual actions - so below I’m talking about how we can each participate in challenge culture.)

My suggested mapping for this overhaul would look like this:

1.In the event that a grievous occurrence is revealed to us, we take a moment (or two!), own our feelings about it, even share that outrage with a friend or small collection of friends.
2. We check our sources and confirm this information has come from a reliable source. Pro tip: Check the dates of those sources too!
3. We involve ourselves in learning about what the organization or individual has done to address the grievance.
4. If we are not satisfied with this response, only at this point, do I suggest we join the “challenge” of this person or organization -- we leverage our networks to bring attention to the grievance.
5. We wait.
6. We check in hours, or days, later to see if we feel the issues have been appropriately addressed, either in the media or directly.
7. We decide with our wallets, votes, and other tools at our disposal the way forward.

It is in this way, that we can defuse our initial outrages, and ensure that when we do step up to speak, we are engaging in the most productive ways possible.

See you tomorrow for Step 5: Diversify Your News Consumption

***What is Cancel Culture?***

As a refresher, or introduction, here’s how cancel culture is defined in wikipedia: The act of canceling, also referred to as cancel culture (a variant on the term "callout culture") describes a form of boycott in which an individual (usually a celebrity) who has shared a questionable or controversial opinion, or has had behavior in their past that is perceived to be offensive recorded on social media, is "canceled"; they are ostracized and shunned by former friends, followers and supporters alike, leading to declines in any careers and fanbase the individual may have at any given time.” It's my view that cancel culture extends beyond individuals and can often include organizations and companies as well.