Can We Please Stop Talking About Cancel Culture?

"On Beyond Zebra" is one of six books that Dr. Seuss Enterprises recently announced would no longer be published due to offensive content. In a 2018 investigation in The New York Times, Jonah Engel Bromwich rather archly argues, “If you announce that someone is canceled, they’re canceled.” This is essentially how the anti-cancel-culture brigade treats the concept, which explains their constant state of alarm: It’s remarkably easy to cancel someone, when all you have to do is declare it aloud. “Cancel culture comes for Dr. Seuss” has a far more sinister ring to it than “Seuss estate decides, after a long review and consultation process, to no longer publish six of his many books due to shockingly racist content.” Here are some events and situations that have been assailed as “cancel culture” in recent months: These are all wildly different things, and they’re also things that have always happened. Books go unpublished or are pulled from print; politicians face investigation and calls to resign; buildings get renamed — presumably when they’re renamed after a wealthy donor rather than a Black community leader, this is not deemed cancel culture. “I have no idea where he heard these types of messages,” the letter writer notes, “because neither my husband nor I have ever even come close to suggesting anything like that.” In her insightful response, columnist Nicole Chung pointed out that not personally modeling this behavior was no guarantee that a child won’t be exposed to racism, because, “Our kids live in the same country we do.” These types of messages are everywhere — even in books many Americans grew up loving — and they’re not harmless.