Entertainment
Canceling Cancel Culture
I can no longer keep track of who I should not be supporting. Nearly every week, we are canceling someone for some transgression, and frankly, I am officially over it. And, I’m over it because nobody ever really gets canceled. Robert Kelly is still out here prospering; Lil Duval is still…lil duval-ing; Linnethia Leakes is on my television every week; and, Azalea Banks makes it to the homepage of your favorite blogs at least once a month.
By now, I feel like we, collectively, know that canceling people doesn’t change their problematic views, so why do we still participate in it?
It’s entertaining. I’ll admit, I have spent many a glorious afternoon reading Twitter thread after Twitter thread aimed at dragging someone (who usually absolutely deserves it) by their flimsy edges. After all, how could they be so stupid to say all their real thoughts and feelings aloud? Don’t they know how social media works by now?
The problem with canceling people is that we don’t leave room for them to grow. Yes, we are super-woke right now, and we have all these new, super-woke terms in our everyday lexicon. Yet, despite what Beyoncé says, we, in fact, did not wake up like this. If I were a betting woman, I would bet that a good number of us grew up in conservative, religious-based households where the notion of respectability was bred into our being because our parents thought it would save us from the 
injustices they endured. And you know what this actually bred in us — sexism, colorism, classism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and all those other bigotries. It takes years and years and years of living and reading and listening and interacting with other people to start dismantling some of this.
And, when we cancel people, most people don’t respond with head down and tail tucked; instead, they double-down in their bigotry which only prolongs the awakening. So, what really comes from all this canceling? Does any policy change? Does it make women and transwomen safer? Does it make sure poor Black and Brown children aren’t bundled up in classrooms with no heat during dangerously cold weather?
And that’s not to say that sometimes this internet fury doesn’t work. I fully believe @ReignofApril’s #OscarsSoWhite hashtag pushed representation in the film in the right direction. Plus, the consistent dragging of Lena Dunham by Black women just makes my heart soar every time, so I definitely don’t want that to change. However, I recognize that beyond some entertainment value, cancel culture is more performative and harmful than anything else. For a community that is constantly pushing against the stereotype of monolithism, canceling people sure feels a lot like…monolithism.
Yes, some people do need to be canceled – William Henry Cosby is at the top of the list. But then I think about Gabby Douglas, whose comments about her teammate’s sexual assault were unequivocally wrong, however, the calls for her cancellation felt premature and well…wrong too. The gir
l is 22 years old and as it would happen, a victim herself (allegedly). Doesn’t she deserve just a little grace?
Let’s call cancel culture what it really is: it is our way — the marginalized, the invisible, the silenced, the powerless — to exert some control over a world that is increasingly becoming more dangerous and less tolerant. It is a performance of a power that really doesn’t exist.
So, I implore you, before you reach for your device and join in on canceling the next problematic fave, think about who you used to be and remember the next person to be canceled could be you.
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In a story published Tuesday evening, Page Six is reporting that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are getting divorced, with the two already in settlement talks. The news comes after the couple spent the holiday season separately – Kanye at his ranch outside Cody, Wyoming, Kim and the kids with her famous family in southern California.
A source close to Kardashian was quoted saying, “Kim got Kanye to go up there so they could live separate lives and quietly get things sorted out to separate and divorce. She’s done.” Kardashian, 40, and West, 43, are said to be splitting because of marital problems directly related to Kanye’s very public mental health struggles.
For several years the rapper’s various antics have caused fans to worry. After coming out as a Trump supporter, West then announced his own 2020 presidential bid under a new political party: the Birthday Party. At a campaign rally in South Carolina, he was seen rambling, debating individual audience members, and at times, crying. In various interviews, he has rambled on almost incoherently, and his tweetstorms are now infamous.
For her part, Kim has always supported her husband and has openly discussed the difficulties of their marriage. Back in June, she shared on social media, “Anyone who has [bipolar disorder] or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand… People who are unaware or far removed from this experience can be judgmental and not understand that the individual (has) to engage in the process of getting help no matter how hard family and friends try.”
It appears she has finally reached her limit in the union with the unnamed source saying, “She is serious about taking the bar exam and becoming a lawyer, she is serious about her prison reform campaign. Meanwhile Kanye is talking about running for president and saying other crazy s**t, and she’s just had enough of it.”
Separately, a source close to Kanye alleges the rapper is sick of his wife and her family, which might have some truth to it since he has tweeted some pretty nasty things about them in the past. “I been trying to get divorced since Kim met with Meek at the Warldolf [sic] for ‘prison reform,’” he said in a now-deleted July tweet. Recently, he hasn’t been featured on his wife’s Instagram and has largely remained out of the public eye.
With the news yet to be confirmed, the “divorce is imminent” reports are just rumors for now. We’ll be following the news as more information comes out.
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