Research Paper about Cancel Culture

George Santayana once said, "those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” That is exactly what Cancel Culture is. A repeat of the past, known before as boycotting. Except this time, it is known for a different purpose and used on a different platform. Cancel Culture is an ideology of human vs. human, therefore the people target one another instead of putting forth the effort to educate and make aware of the topic/issue at hand. It is taking the place of actual accountability for anything that people do wrong instead of moving towards removing these people from their platforms without causing a riot and ruining futures for those who were ignorant on the topic/issue being discussed. 

So, what is the prevalence of Cancel Culture? This issue is another form of performative activism, when it was created to be people taking accountability for their actions, allowing room for second chances, growth, and education but it has turned into if you are not 100% ethical in our capitalist society, a witch hunt can is formed into finding things from 10 years ago and holding it against you while ruining your career, and your social life. This act has become a glamorized bullying scheme that has allowed grown adults to attack each other and find good in it because they think they are tearing down the problems one person at a time. Dr. Seuss has been under scrutiny of Cancel Culture, which has resulted in 6 of his earliest known books not published, sold in stores, or online anymore. Dr. Seuss became a victim of cancel culture due to the book, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” that had Asian and African American characters that presented stereotypic types that offended many people in these races. The pictures of the Asian race were them eating with sticks, and the African American who had a hoop through his nose. I believe Dr. Seuss was portraying these cultures through his pictures and including all to be in his books, not just one race, and not intending to be racist, but this response has been the biggest shock when it came to the mobs of people canceling him over books, he wrote between 1945-1976 and just came out in June of 2021 as racist, and need to "be canceled", pulled from shelves, and shut him off socials. The backlash from said mob caused a big uproar from Dr. Seuss fans, leading many to still be fighting over it today. There was no reason to cancel Dr. Seuss for portraying the races due to the fact he represented their culture, and how they dress or eat. Instead of ignoring Dr. Seuss and not supporting his books, or him as an individual, they started a mob that led to many people tearing down his legacy and making him out to be a white supremacist. How can one justify this type of behavior and if it was so easy to do this to a man who has one of the biggest platforms, what are they doing to the ones who only have 200 followers or less on their social media?

Do you eliminate something, or do you diminish it in status and teach people why it is problematic? This begs the question since one of the most famous fast-food chains, Chick-Fil-A was recently caught in the circle of canceling due to the fact they supported and funded to push anti-transgender state laws and ban the Equality Act while also funding gay conversion therapy for the LGBTQ community. As a society, we all want to be accepted as who feel and believe that we are no matter who we love, how we dress, or what we believe in politically or religiously. Chick-Fil-A let down millions of customers with this news and made out to be that this community isn’t welcome at the restaurant chains. This eventuality is where marginalizing comes into play to diminish the voice Chick-fil-a once had and seek accountability for their actions and learn to do better. Chick-Fil-A pledged to stop more or less of the controversial donations, and support. This response all came about of digging into the Chick-Fil-A funding due to the witch hunt a group of LGBTQ commuters had done and found out that Cathy had said she does not support same-sex marriage in 2012. What should’ve happened with this situation, was a call to do better on Chick-Fil-A part, to help educate, and let them grow with the new times, especially since it does go against their religion to support anything other than marriage between a man and woman rather than employees and owners of this restaurant chain receiving death threats, people showing up to their houses, and terrible comments, and memes left on his, her, their, etc. employee’s social media posts. This community and whoever did not support this funding should’ve stopped giving they're business and let them take accountability for being ignorant on the topic, and still allowing them to not cross their lines with what they believe. You diminish the issue in status and teach the company why it is problematic. 

Moving beyond Cancel Culture and cutting it out of how we “punish” those who disagree with our opinions are composed of two solutions making it one. All of those who disagree with the opposing sides need to acknowledge and work with the fact that not everyone is going to have the same opinion as you and everyone should be entitled to their own, which makes that person someone different from you, or the next person all while releasing the judgment that caused you to “cancel” someone or something. All of those who made mistakes, apologized, and are now growing have accepted their accountability and should be seen as moving forward, that their past doesn’t make them who they are, but how they move forward, and their presence is making them into who they are. 

As a society that has allowed Cancel Culture to turn into what it has by letting becoming so widely used as a hate punishment because we believed that we held people to their accountability for their mistakes while all it has done is make us love watching people fall for having different opinions than you rather than educating the person and helping their growth on the issue/topic. The ideology of Cancel Culture has pitted us against each other rather than us against the issue. If we could take the backlash, anger, hate and put it toward what we believe is the issue and not just a person’s words or actions, we could end racism, women not having the rights we want, bullying, etc. Cancel Culture will never be the teaching of accountability and growth that we need in our world, instead, it teaches hatred and belittling that needs to be put to an end to help our world and peers to be better.