Who is Really Empowering Cancel Culture?
By Bob Branco
July 24, 2021
I have had several conversations with friends who believe that the more we talk about cancel culture, the more we empower those who want to practice it. In other words, if we bring it up, we give it more purpose. The media does this all the time. They continuously report on words and phrases that particular people want to cancel, rename or rebrand.
With that said, there is one thing we must consider. Despite how we talk about cancel culture, we are not the ones who submit to it by renaming and changing things. We didn’t rename the Cleveland Indians. We didn’t get rid of Redskin. We didn’t eliminate Providence Plantations from the official name of Rhode Island. We didn’t ban songs from radio stations. These were the acts of baseball teams, football teams, legislators and radio station owners. These are the organizations who are empowering cancel culture by honoring it, and doing exactly what cancel culture wants. In other words, if these organizations are asked to get rid of Indian, Redskin, Plantation, song lyrics and other questionable terms, they will get rid of them.
Even if we never talk about cancel culture anymore, there will always be organizations that will submit to it and carry out these changes. Aren’t these the people who give cancel culture more purpose than what you and I do? All we do is talk about it. These other people act on it.
