When you hear someone screaming about cancel culture it’s important not to look where they are pointing (like towards Mr. Potato Head or Dr. Seuss). Instead, you should look at the individual doing the pointing (and the screaming). Because the issue with cancel culture isn’t about toys or other such nonsense. It’s about power and who gets to wield it.
Because our country has historically centered the stories, voices, beliefs, and experiences of white males, that ‘culture’ has become representative of ‘right’ and ‘normal’ – while the rest of us have been cast as supporting characters in that Hollywood blockbuster movie. For examples of how white male culture is valorized watch ever Western ever filmed. White men are the stars. Women are subservient wives in the background and non-white men are the ‘heathens’ who eventually scalp, rape or kill white women unless they are good-hearted prostitutes sitting on pianos in saloons in which case they miraculously survive. Women of color don’t even make the script unless they show up as maids or nannies.
Because powerful white men have historically had the starring roles in our culture, they learn they are entitled to direct our social narratives promoting and enforcing our social norms – in our politics, in our churches, in our schools and in our families. They have been in control of our culture for a long time, and this power has given them the privilege to ‘cancel’ the voices and experiences of the rest of us. They set the stories about what was ‘true’, ‘normal’ and ‘valuable’ and the rest of us must comply because we lacked the sociopolitical power to challenge them.
The people (and by people, I mean privileged white men) who are screaming bloody murder about cancel culture aren’t really as angry about Dr. Seuss or Mr. Potato Head as they’d like you to believe. They are actually angry about the loss of their power to control Mr. Potato Head…and the rest of us. They have benefited from a world where their color, their gender, their family wealth/influence has increased their social value and special entitlements. It allows many of them to celebrate and flaunt their mediocrity and still get promoted. It allows some of them to have sex with 15-year-old choir girls (*below the age of consent so not sex – statutory rape!) and still remain the youth pastor. It allows some of them to rape an unconscious woman behind a dumpster and not have their swim-meet cancelled. (All true stories.)
Being cancelled just isn’t something they are accustomed to. But they are accustomed to being free from being ‘cancelled’ to face the consequences of their actions. They scream they have a right to ‘free speech’ when no one is keeping them from talking – if only we could! When they are really just angry that people are finally holding them responsible for the creepy racist, misogynistic things they say. They feel it is unfair because they haven’t had to follow the same rules as the rest of us. They can storm the US capital without being shot by police while BLM protesters or the Women’s march would have been met with a much different fate. While the rest of us nonwhite, nonmale humans have never been part of a culture that gives us that kind of power.
But let’s review what powerful white male culture has been canceling for the rest of us: the rights of women to earn the same salary as a man for the same work, the rights of vulnerable people to survive a pandemic where the majority of white men won’t wear masks or get vaccinated, the rights of people of color to not be shot by police just for jogging, walking home from work or sleeping peacefully in their beds, the rights of women to walk safely at night without being assaulted, raped or killed. Why don’t we have the power to cancel problematic white male culture? The inequitable power these men have places them above the law – giving them impunity to cancelling consequences – Like KKK members who were never cancelled for their murderous lynching of black people – Like the Catholic Priests/churches that never got cancelled for the molestation and rape of so many choir boys – Like the 95% of rapist who never get arrested and the 99% who never face a felony conviction. So, you see the ability to cancel or be cancelled is an issue of power and that power is often gendered, raced, and classed.
So, for the people (and by people, I mean mostly white men and the women they hold emotionally hostage) screaming out against the social injustice of cancel culture – we see you! You are just signaling your expectation of your historic entitlement to power to aggress others, to suppress and cancel their rights, their voices, and their lives. You have never experienced a life where you don’t have access to the power to decide who and what gets cancelled. You are tragically outraged because you think your toy (power) is being taken away. You have never learned to share, and it shows.
I must admit I find screams of cancel culture music to my ears. It’s an indicator that this group is losing power – which should have happened long ago. And these are the screams of dying dinosaurs. But there will be backlash. These people believe that power is their birthright and they’ll do what it takes to keep it. That’s why you see so many blatant voter suppression bills right now. They know we no longer accept them as our leaders, and they don’t deserve positions of power. They lack the emotional intelligence and maturity for the job. They know the majority of people no longer accept white, male culture as our version of the world or that toy potatoes have a gender.
This is a tipping point for change, and we must see its significance. While there are more of us than there are of them, they still hold the levers to power until we vote them out. True democracy in the USA demands power be shared, so their only option to maintain the power they believe is their birthright is to dismantle democracy and cancel our voices before we cancel theirs. Voter suppression efforts are happening all over our country right now. Please keep track of your local voter suppression bills because while these powerful white men fully intend to protect their beloved ‘culture’ (power) by canceling all transgendered potatoes they also intend to protect it by cancelling your vote.