There lies a long list of trends happening in society that truly encompasses "comme ci, comme ca". I studied French in high school and for some unbeknownst reason it was my favorite phrase. Not that it didn't have an English translation (so-so, for those too lazy to Google) but it gave 'so-so' some spice and pizzazz, which yes!
From that long list will come posts on those topics because like this first one, it truly requires a deep dive on the subject. As you may have noticed from the title, this is Part 1. Part 2 will actually be the sports version of this exact piece on another platform that I'll be writing on. Stay tuned for that. The accountability to which I speak of comes from one of the hot, new phrases to have joined the lexicon in quite some time: cancel culture. Yes, cancel culture is the illusion. To get to that we need to first define very specifically what cancel culture is and when it comes up. As best as I can label it, cancel culture describes a phenomenon where the consumers of a product, brand or entertainment entity seek to hold said product or entertainer accountable for conduct detrimental to society. Maybe this is best explained by real life examples: Bill Cosby being cancelled for allegations of aggravated indecent assault , Gucci receiving backlash for its Sambo sweater and H&M being called out for it's very tone deaf hoodie. The illusion comes in the actual cancelling of these people/brands. In instances where we do see 'cancellation' (Cosby or R.Kelly) it takes everyone being on board. Yet it appears when a call is made for people--especially of color--to band together and withhold support due to a problematic incident; that 'boycott' either falls on deaf ears or people openly chime in on that not being a good idea. Gucci--and to a lesser extent H&M--can avoid a full boycott due to influence. Influence--as I defined in my car on the way to go grocery shopping this morning--is a mixture of content and reputation. Gucci is a fashion line that creates clothes, handbags, accessories, etc. That's the content. Not all Gucci branded items are appealing to the eye but their reputation is such that someone would (and has) chalked up $1590 for those shoes in the last link. This is how you get Floyd being an idiot about refusing to boycott Gucci but its also how you get people on the other end that may speak to their disgust in the moment and but be 'back on the train' when the artist, brand or company releases something new. Now don't get me wrong. Not everything is boycott or cancellation worthy. Very few offenses are actually. Let's take Chris Brown as an example. While an egregious action, the outcry should have been demands for the 19 year old singer to enter therapy. Instead of treating this kid as a monster; some calm in the face of chaos could have been a suggestion for Brown to realize this act continued the cycle of the same sickness he was witness to as a child. What occurs instead is: Chris Brown fans attempting to diminish the incident and in turn barely holding him accountable at all whereas the other side of the fence preaches for all out excommunciation. What is lost is the handling of the moment where this can be a teachable moment for Brown. With this public reaction to a vulnerable scenario, potentially Brown is afforded the ability to be open about the incident, his past and hopefully a sincere vow to learn from the mistake. Hindsight, of course, is 20/20 and there is no certainty that my hypothesis would have yielded the results I painted. The point still stands that instead of pouring water on an oil fire, that we don't rush to vilify. Chris Brown is human. The people at Gucci and H&M are as well, and while they may all deserve to hear of the disappointment they caused people do mess up and this should be a thing the world understands. With that said, accountability is also important particularly in the era of social media. Now that consumers have a direct line via Twitter and Instagram consequences are swift and fierce; forcing these companies and brands to act. This in action looks like Pepsi's response to the backlash they faced from the Kendall Jenner commercial. Is it a perfect apology? No. But I'm sure what came out of it was an understanding that there maybe ought to be a few more brown people deciding what winds up on the cutting room floor. The blame finger also needs to be pointed at us (in society) for all of this. We actively search for it. Take the case of Twitter user @CraigNoFridayy. Also present in the age of social media is going viral. The man in the video above, CraigNoFridayy, said in a reply about his own cancellation, "I am just a normal person who went to work yesterday, I had no idea that today I would wake up with all this attention". How could such a hero be cancelled? Easy. Man becomes the face of handling racism in the workplace and before his key to the city is done being copied at Home Depot ,someone goes out their way to find old dirt. This particularly bothers me because--as I'll argue more in Part 2 of this piece--here is a moment where someone is lauded for one, standalone event. Nothing about that video suggested Craig is a proxy for any other sense of good in the world. He is not suddenly a hero that has done no wrong. Appreciate the man for this moment and the funny memes that accompany it. Why does his tweets from nearly 2 years prior to the incident require digging up? This unfortunately gives slight credence to DogAvi Twitter's claim of "everyone wants to be offended at every turn". While I disagree with it in the dogwhistle sense of "I (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) get to say what is offensive and what is not because this is my country" it's hard to argue against when you're going into a search bar in Twitter looking for trouble. Ultimately, let's not make cancel culture the new boy-who-cried-wolf. Holding celebs and companies accountable for their output is a great tool to reshape 'outdated maps' (worldviews and ways of thinking) and when done correctly there should be next steps for progress identified. When done haphazardly, these same entertainers and brands are able to call out the fickleness of your cancellation, moving on to the next act knowing their influence is too strong for you to truly abandon them. Comments are closed.
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Ty FosterQuestion everything. WQHC Archives
June 2020
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