After sharing a post on Facebook the other night, three of my “friends” had taken personal offense to it and felt the need to make their feelings known. To be clear, I have always encouraged all of my friends to share their feelings and thoughts with me directly, and I have always been extended the same courtesy and felt welcomed to do the same on any issues that they’ve addressed in the past. However, their responses to what I posted were not addressed in a way that these same “friends” would’ve spoken to me prior to the current “cancel culture” bandwagon that our society has jumped on in the last five years or so. Their responses were more like an attack than the intelligent and respectful debates that we’ve had in the past. So, my first thought was to stay quiet about this altogether, so as not to throw my “friends” under the proverbial bus. But after careful deliberation, I’ve decided that I have a much higher obligation as a writer, and it’s imperative that I speak openly about this issue.
Now, whatever your stance may be on this “cancel culture”, you must’ve already seen things like this in the media in recent years. Maybe you yourself have been attacked for your difference of opinion, or perhaps you yourself have been the attacker. Either way, you’ve seen it, and at some point in time you’ve probably wondered whether or not it was getting out of hand. Well, it has been out of hand right from the very start.
To my memory, what we now refer to as the “cancel culture”, or as I more accurately like to call it, the “boycott culture”, must’ve started with the destruction of certain statues of figures from our past who were known in their era to be slave owners. Can anyone else agree that this was taking things a little too far? I can recall many people stating that this was the beginning of a slippery slope. And not only were they right, but we’re still on that slippery slope. From there, we’ve seen Charles Shultz’ beloved Peanuts special removed from TV because a black character named Franklin was seen sitting alone at Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving table. We’ve seen Aunt Jemima’s syrup called racist and taken off of the shelf. Then the same for Uncle Ben’s rice, Land O’Lakes butter, Mr. Potato Head, and many others. And most recently, we’ve seen 6 Dr. Seuss books taken out of print for containing racial words and imagery. So of course, when I shared someone’s post about this and agreed with it, some people thought I must’ve been condoning Dr. Seuss’ racial images. My post itself wasn’t even about Dr. Seuss at all, and in no way was I defending it, condoning it, or even denying that it was in fact racist. But I do have an issue with censorship. And I do see the damage that our current actions may have on the future.
But even censorship itself is only a fraction of the problem. The bigger picture here is that we are systematically hiding pieces of the past to spare future generations from seeing it. And the reason we’re doing this seems to be because people are offended. This is the slippery slope that we were warned about. When does it end, and how much more of the past will be hidden before people finally feel that they’ve done enough? By shielding the future from these unsavory parts of our horrific past, they will eventually have no basis of comparison to understand how far we’ve come and how much progress we’ve actually made against the real issue at hand—racism.
Racism is still a very real and prevalent issue in most of the world, but it is not found on a grocery store shelf or on a box of rice. It was, however, most definitely found in the 6 Dr. Seuss books that were taken out of publication. But the point is, the more pieces of our past that are brushed under the rug, the less the future will know of its existence. While some people might celebrate that, I believe it’s a bad idea. These things should never be forgotten, and they eventually will be forgotten if we continue to remove them. Our current actions will impact the future, and maybe not in the way that we intended.
Since the beginning of this “cancel culture”, I’ve been wondering what affect it would’ve had on the future, or in fact, even the present, had Jews treated the Holocaust and anti-semitism the same way that we’re now handling our current war on racism, inequality, homophobia and women’s rights. Considering how many times throughout our history someone has attempted to claim that the Holocaust did not happen, what if Jews did not bite back with “Never Forget” and provide photographs, diaries, and even video evidence to the contrary? It makes me wonder whether or not it would’ve been forgotten if we brushed the memory of that era under the rug. And isn’t that precisely what we’re doing right now? How much of our history will be known to our future if we continue down this slippery slope? And how much will be forgotten?
If you really want the children of our future to learn from the past, show it to them. Allow them a chance to see it for themselves and to make up their own minds. But don’t erase it. You’re not erasing racism by doing this. What you’re doing is denying our future generations the knowledge that we currently have. And to delete it from history is serving no other purpose than to placate the fact that we are offended. And you SHOULD be offended. In no way am I saying that these things are not offensive. What I’m saying is that you caught it right now in our present, and you should take what you’ve learned and pass it along. That, my friends, is how you fight racism. I’m saying, stop deleting history.
As of late, people have been finding a lot of details from our past that are clearly disturbing, offensive and racist. And you’re absolutely right for thinking that it’s wrong. And I applaud you for finding it! But now it’s up to you to use it as ammunition. What you’ve found is warfare. Now use it! Show it to the future so that they may arm themselves and continue this war against racism. Otherwise, what are you fighting for? Is the war over? Have we already won?
But racism isn’t the only objective of the “cancel culture”, as we’ve seen other parts of our past being targeted as well. Just as I’ve been writing this article, one of our favorite childhood characters, Pepé Le Pew, is being brushed under the rug. Many celebrities have also lost their place in Hollywood because of the things that they’ve said in the past or written on Twitter. And it’s absolutely wrong to have the power to destroy anything you dislike just because it offends you. And the whole reason people have that power right now is because it was obtained through fear. The riots, the protests, the online petitions, all generated to frighten businesses and corporations into doing what you want them to do. And it works, because companies do fear being shut down, and Hollywood would prefer to let one actor go than to have their name muddied. But to me, that’s nothing more than bullying, and no one is really winning anything by doing this. Well, you know what? Bullying offends me. So let’s get this “cancel culture” canceled. Or perhaps we should attack these issues in a more productive way and start teaching our children properly. Racism is not found in a grocery store or in cartoons, but it is found in the home. It is taught, passed down, and taught again. And the war against it is far from won. So don’t delete history just because it offends you. Pass it down as a lesson to never forget it. Pass it down so our future generations will learn from it and never repeat it.
I once had a tarantula named Nix She used to bite me on the tits Surely, they would swell And man, it hurt like hell But it wasn’t really something I’d fix
Volkuros Prophesies 