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In response to
"I’ll read this more closely in the morning, but a large part of the issue is that many people don’t take their lumps, learn and move on. They feel"
by
Roger More
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OK, having read it again - I think he talks about cancellation too narrowly.
Posted by
Roger More (aka RogerMore)
Aug 13 '22, 07:45
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Cancellation is different for different people because of time and whether it’s due to their actions or their words.
So, eg people who were slave owners or who fought on the wrong side of the Civil War or who established the residential school system are being cancelled by having statues that glorify them removed or buildings/streets/institutions named for them being renamed. He doesn’t have a lot to say about that type of cancellation.
Nor does he have a lot to say about cancellation in the present - because of things people are doing now. A lot of these cancellations areiabout people deciding they don’t want to work with people, or read their books or watch their movies. This is different to cancelling some long dead guy or someone who wrote a good book 50 years ago - it’s asking the question “do I want to have a relationship with this person who says racist things?”. Reading a book by someone who has been dead 50 years and was a massive perv is different to saying “I’ll spend $60 million on this movie and Kevin Spacey is the lead”
Where his focus is, is on people whose best efforts - like writing a book or developing a philosophy - are in the past, and now when some of their more unpleasant views come to light through a study of everything they wrote or that was written about them, there’s discussion of their legacy. And some people may react “oh well, no more of this author for me” or perhaps “this author shouldn’t be taught in schools”. But that barely scratches today’s cancellation debates.
The other theme is about how “black women don’t get cancelled” which I think has some accurate observations, but really I think he should look more broadly at other people who don’t get cancelled, not just black women. There’s lots of sexist/racist/homophobic content that gets consumed as entertainment today. Ice Cube isn’t canceled. Old James Bond movies aren’t cancelled. And then there are the people who are cancelled but not totally because they were still somewhat accepted in at least part of their community - Roman Polanski or Woody Allen. To me, singling out black women is taking the wrong path - especially as in other contexts, black woman are cancelled all the time.
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