Black History Month 2026: Cancel Culture
Day 13
“Canceling” people started, as many popular things do, with Black women. It was originally a joke. A non-Black person would do something bigoted (usually racist) and a Black woman--or multiple Black women individually or a group of Black women collectively--would say that person was “canceled!” The joke was that since Black women have the least amount of power in our society, they’re incapable of “canceling” someone for anyone but themselves.
Then came Barbeque Becky. In 2018, Jennifer Schulte called the police on a Black family having a BBQ in the park because she claimed they were there illegally [1]. The wife of the man doing the cooking filmed her behavior and posted it online. It went viral. That was the tipping point.
Black women--and Black men--all over the country started filming racism. These videos went viral. Another early incident was a white woman following a Black man all the to his apartment because “she didn’t believe he lived there” [1]. The implication being that no Black person could ever make enough money to live in said apartment complex. People started finding these people on Facebook and informing their workplaces. Some of these companies even acted on the information provided. Black women, and Black people in general, started to realize their words did have power. If we worked together we could hold people accountable when society refused!
That’s when racists became aware of it--and they got scared! They realized the racism society allowed them to get away with for decades would suddenly have consequences. Rather than take steps to improve themselves, they went on the offense. Suddenly “canceling” people was “cancel culture.” They evolved it into a strawman where Black people would seek out random people they didn’t like and accuse them of racism. Racist conservative media and racist politicians started using “cancel culture” as a general term for any Black person who stood up for themselves against racism.
But we wouldn’t be deterred! Even now, Black people continue to hold racists accountable and continue to stand our ground. You see it when Black women post the nasty messages they receive from people on Facebook. You see it when Black people continue to film the racism they face daily. You see if when people film police (including ICE) brutality. If anything, the racists accidentally made “cancel culture” more popular!
It’s even encouraged Black people—and non-Black people--to stand up to racists who choose to be physically violent with them. The most popular example is the Montgomery Riverfont Brawl. A wh1te family assault a Black employee and met with resistance from a large number of Black people (I will talk more about this on another day) [2].
“Cancel Culture” teaches us two important lessons. First: never be afraid to film injustice. Second: racists’ attempts to suppress your resistance to injustice can, and often do, backfire.
Source:
[1] https://abcnews.com/US/bbq-becky-golfcart-gail-list-unnecessary-911-calls/story?id=58584961
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Riverfront_brawl
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