I’ve been against it even before I learned the name of this kind of protest. If the boycotts towards Chick-fil-A in 2012 and the Paula Deen incident weren’t enough, they are just the beginning. Some more egregious cases from recent times:
- The stepmother of a police officer got fired because she is related to the officer, even though she does not support the killing (to make matters worse, the victim of that said officer actually resisted his arrest).
- Aunt Jemima brand and Splash Mountain are being targeted.
- Worst of all, a Mexican-American man got fired for cracking his knuckles, not knowing that the way he did it looked like a white supremacist gesture.
I would not defend bigotry or bigoted behavior, but using someone’s past, relations, or minor actions as an excuse to hate someone is worse. Eventually, this fad will backfire, and everyone involved will be “cancelled” for their failure to forgive and for their hatred.
First let me say that I think all criticisms against cancel culture is valid and that I personally don't like it either, but let's not pretend that cancel culture had any affect on the people that were cancelled because tbh nothing really happened to them after a while. People forget about it move on and most of the people that are cancelled are wealthy/famous enough to get away with it. Doja Cat and Lil Nas X have been "cancelled" and they're still thriving. I highly doubt it has any real effect on anything.
Also, the things you pointed out are heavily criticized for
a reason.
- Chick-Fil-A was under fire for donating to homophobic organizations such as the
Salvation Army and the
Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
They did say they would stop donating to them as of November 2019, but it's obvious the reason why they did this was because people were calling them out. And let's be real,
if no one called them out for it, they would probably still do it nonetheless. Also they aren't really "cancelled" because millions of people still eat there and I highly doubt they were ever affected in the US because of it.
- Paula Deen is a pretty old controversy back in 2013, but she pretty much admitted to
A) Using racial slurs and using the N word (with the hard "-er" which is yikes, and
even admitted to it in a transcript here),
B) planning to create a plantation-style wedding using black people as servers, and
C) sympathizing and defending the actions of her ancestors for owning slaves. (
B and C explained here)
This isn't even all of the things she has done, which more is explained here. I did hear she did release an apology video at some point in time, but personally I feel like if she truly cared and wanted to change for the better, it would be reflected on her actions and nit just because she said she was sorry.
-
Aunt Jemina (and Uncle Ben) aren't being cancelled, they're just being retired because the companies that own them have acknowledged that they were rooted in racial imagery black people being submissive caretakers,
with Aunt Jemina being based on the "Mammy" caricature.
While the family of the woman who did portray Aunt Jemina did say that they weren't okay with the rebranding, I feel like they should have come to a compromise and talked this through. I think it's good that companies are acknowledging that their advertising is rooted in racism are trying to change their ways.
-
Again, Splash Mountain isn't being cancelled, it's being rebranded because the movie that the ride was based off of was being criticized by black people even back when it was released in the 1940s for trying to present the Reconstruction Era as upbeat and lighthearted. Not to mention it heavily stereotyped black people.
I don't know about the controversial issue concerning the police officer, so I won't comment on it. Again, I won't defend cancel culture because it achieves nothing, but some things are called out for a reason. Also cancel culture is only prominent on Twitter, and Twitter doesn't really reflect the mindset of most people tbh.
If anything...I'd say Xbox might be underrated, as they offer quite a lot (gamepass, PC streaming, etc)...but Playstation always gets the love. Hahaha.
