The Reality of "Cancel Culture"

In a Wall Street Journal Magazine profile published on August 22, actor Jennifer Aniston proclaimed that she is “so over” cancel culture. “I probably just got canceled by saying that,” she lamented. “Is there no redemption?” (Hollywood Reporter). While it’s doubtful that anyone was holding their breath to learn about Jennifer Aniston’s cancel culture opinions, the fact that she felt the need to share them demonstrates the continuing hold that “cancel culture” discourse has on us. 

Depending on who you ask, cancel culture either doesn't exist (New Statesman) or is an existential threat to American freedom liable to have even multi-millionaire stars like Aniston shaking in their Primetime Emmy-winning boots (N.Y. Times). The growing list of canceled public figures includes Christopher Columbus, J.K. Rowling, Roseanne Barr, Kevin Spacey, the food brand Goya, and a whole host of comedians. While critics believe that this "celebrity hunting season" prevents them from working, supporters feel it's retribution for bad behavior (Vox, Guardian).

TAKE ACTION

• Encourage people you know who are worried about “cancel culture” to unpack what it actually means in concrete examples.

• Consider: Why is individual accountability necessary? What should it look like in practice? Who are the easiest and hardest people to hold accountable? How does it relate to systemic change?

The critique of “cancel culture” usually goes something like this: 

Today, online mobs descend people for perceived political incorrectness, wrecking their careers, reputations, and lives (Forbes). The threat of cancellation forces us all into paranoid self-censorship and ideological conformity. 

Concrete examples provide ample evidence to question this narrative about mob justice, cancel culture, and diversity of opinion. But it’s also important to understand the limits of campaigns against individuals as a tool for social change. 

“Cancellation” often boils down to not buying a company’s product or engaging with an entertainer’s content: a consumer boycott (Vox). Many Latine people stopped buying Goya products after their CEO endorsed Trump (NBC), while conservatives boycotted Nike for supporting Black Lives Matter (The Outline). Deciding not to purchase a certain commodity isn’t a nefarious socialist conspiracy—it’s cited as one of the chief blessings of free-market capitalism (Mises Institute). 

Other times, campaigns publicize an individual’s offensive actions to their employer. Sometimes, they’re fired. This is severe, but the actions in question are often egregious, as well. Justine Sacco was fired after a single tweet made in jest. This seems extreme, except that she had tweeted a “joke” about only Black people in Africa getting AIDS, where the UN once predicted half of teenagers would die of the disease (National Institutes of Health). It also bears mentioning that the job Sacco, a white South African, lost was in public relations (Uproxx). 

Confronting an employer with the actions of their employees is basically the purpose of Yelp. It’s the same strategy that white people used to get Colin Kaepernick fired for protesting police murders. Companies can terminate at-will employees for almost any reason, including off-the-clock activities like public drunkenness, brawling, or going viral for shouting racial slurs. 

Often, being canceled doesn’t actually have much of a long-term effect. Despite the backlash against J.K. Rowling’s transphobic comments, her publisher specifically cited Harry Potter as a “lockdown favorite” as its children’s division grew by 27% at the beginning of the pandemic (Guardian). Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Tina Fey were called out for using blackface; their careers continued uninterrupted (The Guardian). Goya still produces the only Latin American products in many grocery stores. Justine Sacco would spend some time in Ethiopia and then get another job—also in public relations (Uproxx). 

Far from being all-powerful, cancel culture isn’t necessarily effective against individuals, much less institutions. People should be held accountable for bigotry, but individual call-outs don’t change structures. In isolation, they might divert “public ire from structural injustice,” a maneuver sure to be “exploited by the dominant class” (N.Y. Times). While some people have lost their jobs after being canceled, police chiefs, prison wardens, or Fortune 500 CEOs have not been among them. 

As musician Phoebe Bridgers said of anti-cancel culture hysteria like that of Jennifer Aniston’s cancel culture proclamation: 

“I mean, is [cancel culture] real? Who's lost their job politically? One huge offender is in jail for actual sex crimes, and then anything short of that is, maybe, they lose a couple friends or lose a couple jobs,” she says. “Then five years later, they're like, ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry.’ And they come back, but they never apologize — they never go away” (Teen Vogue).

People who espouse hate should be held to account, just as they might be held to account for other outrageous behavior. Denouncing bigotry isn’t totalitarianism. It’s common human decency. We should also recognize the limits of individual accountability in changing structural injustices. It is indeed outrageous that a woman threatened to summon N.Y.P.D. against a Black birder breaking no law. We need to be outraged at the very existence of an unaccountable, racist agency you can summon with a phone call, not exclusively on the person who called them.

Jennifer Aniston’s cancel culture conception—a monstrously powerful woke Inquisition, wreaking havoc on the innocent and guilty alike—doesn’t actually exist. But oppressive institutions, whether hedge funds or local police, do get to destroy people’s lives with impunity. The dignity of all our communities demands the condemnation not just of bigots but of bigotry, the denunciation not just of racists but of racism, and the cancellation not just of shocking offenders but the disgraceful systems and patterns of behavior they exemplify.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Cancel culture is described as an omnipresent form of social control.

• Cancellation generally amounts to a boycott or pressure campaign. The results are far from assured.

• Individuals should be accountable for bigotry, but we also need to focus on powerful individuals and institutions. 

*This piece was originally published on 1/20/22. It was updated by The ARD on 8/28/23.