Canceled culture is truly unique to me. Every week black twitter, myself included bands together to critique faux pas that comes across our screen and tell one another that we as a black community are done giving our time, money, or energy toward either an entity or person. Last week it was EcoStyler following the reports that it contains carcinogens, a month ago it was Kanye following the discovery of his political affiliation and this week it's Drake following the discovery of him in blackface.

While Drake's story was far more nuanced in that he provided context for why the picture was taken, the truth is that every story is nuanced yet we don't' take this into account.

Each week, we as a community band together to ridicule someone for their ignorance. And now I'm starting to question the validity of consistently doing this. The only issue with this is that every faux pas we witness isn't a result of willful ignorance. Sometimes what we see is just a result of someone being ill-informed speaking when asked a question. Personally, I find canceled culture to be problematic for two main reasons.

For one canceled culture only really works when we enforce it equally but this is far from true. For example, Chrisette Michele and Kanye were criticized for the same thing but faced entirely different ramifications. While Kanye is at the top of the billboard despite the recent unraveling of his political ideologies, Michelle is still paying for a political decision she made a little over a year ago. One could argue that since canceled culture can't withstand the reins of sexism it's not that valid.

Canceled culture is also problematic in that it fails to account for growth. Canceled culture emphasizes labeling people for eternity and assumes that where someone currently stands on the political totem pole or on any issue is forever. If anyone knows the danger of normalizing the need for perfection it should be black people. We are doing ourselves a huge disservice by employing this same narrative that to be respected or considered worthy you must be spotless at all times.

We as black individuals need to support black artists. I believe we can simultaneously hold artists accountable while supporting the art they create.

For some odd reason, it's very easy for us to give up on artists in a fashion that we would never do to our friends and family. Most of us know that relationships whether romantic in nature or familiar involve working through issues, forgiveness, and educating one another on each others areas of weakness. People naturally become defensive and shut down when they are being talked at rather than talked to.

Perhaps if we as a community were more willing to sit down and encourage interviews from artists following their problematic blunders then we could dig at the root of these beliefs and educate them. This strategy is significantly more strenuous emotionally but I think the benefits make it worth it

The extent to which we are willing to educate someone is different for everyone. For me, once I have expressed numerous times how I disagree with a particular belief and it's effect on a multitude of people that's enough for me. My goal isn't to change someone's mind or perspective but simply present them with another alternative and allow them to decide for themselves. This isn't the case for everyone. For some people, they get discouraged at the thought of telling someone what they think is right and getting upset when someone doesn't alter their life or beliefs to adhere to theirs.

There's value in asking why and having conversations with those let us down rather than casting them away.