A Review of The Case For Cancel Culture by Ernest Owens
I read this entire book looking for a single cogent argument for cancel culture but I could not find one. I think the truest statement Owens makes in this book is that
He writes that “discussing cancel culture without the additional lens of power becomes futile.” The problem of this book is that Owens does not interrogate what “the additional lens of power” actually is. He does not probe enough the power dynamics between the employer and the employed, between labor and capital. He does not provide a deeper context as to who gets cancelled and who doesn’t. His analysis is missing the power dynamic. His whole book assumes U.S. liberal power is good power, and trustworthy power.
Most of the arguments in this book are muddled in corporate liberal talking points that get in the way of a clear description of cancel culture. I find most of his arguments corporate, disingenuous, and inauthentic. He says that “right wing cancel culture is obsessed with reinforcing traditional power structures,” however I’ve found that left wing cancel culture is “more obsessed with reinforcing traditional power structures,” especially when you consider the ways that so called Left groups like Facebook cooperated with local police and federal agencies to murder Baltimore resident Korryn Gaines, persecuted Palestinian journalists for defending their homeland, and for carrying out James Comey’s attacks on so-called “Black identity extremists.”
In his Introduction, he mentions how the concept of cancelling came from the “Love and Hip Hop” Reality TV show which he says he likes to watch, but he does not probe how the storylines its actors play out follow the dictates of its producer Mona Scott-Young, nor how she follows the dictates of her superior Brad Abramson who expects some amount of “drama” to draw Nielsen ratings. Owens’s analysis is shallow and ignores the ways that white ownership of television and internet media make money by continuing to parade and incentivize the dysfunctional behavior of Black people. From the Introduction it goes downhill.
He claims in the next section that “in the hands of conservatives,” cancel culture has “reinforced entrenched power structures.” I couldn’t help but think of Russiagate, and how every Left media outlet, from MSNBC to DemocracyNow.org cancelled so many people in the Left if you did not agree that Russia stole the 2016 presidential election, instead of Hillary’s poor choice not to campaign in several swing states including Michigan. That was the Left reinforcing power structures, not the “conservatives.”
Owens’s discussion of Jesse Williams celebrates his nicely worded 2016 speech at the BET Awards that cancelled the reply by Justin Timberlake. However, I was expecting so much more of Owens’ analysis, like how Wililams’s entire 2016 speech celebrating Black identity was completely negated by his choice to leave his then wife, Aryn Drake-Lee to date Jessica Alba.
Owens claims “the election of Trump emboldened a culture of toxic hostility toward minorities.” Nothing has been more toxic to the culture of Black people than Democratic presidential administrations. During Obama’s eight years, the public sector shrank more than during any other president, and Joseph Biden locked up more Black and brown people with his 1994 crime bill than any Republican president since the 70s.
Owens writes: “Cancel culture is what has given me, a Black Queer millennial the freedom that so many others take for granted.”
As a Black Queer Generation X-er, I’ve seen “cancel culture” do nothing but create online mobs and monsters to ultimately destroy an individual’s ability to critically think for themselves. It destroys an individual’s ability to critically think for themselves because its in the hands of those who use their capital, liberal or conservative, to push their corporate agenda. Cancel culture is nothing but detrimental. As Kenny Babyface Edmonds told Jason Lee this month, “cancel culture destroys artists.”
Both liberal and conservative media used their capital to cancel Jeffrey Epstein, but to this day they have protected most of Epstein’s clients. In most cases, when corporations cancel someone they are “saving their face” or “covering their ass” to keep advertiser revenue. They are not upholding some noble cause as Owens argues. It is not a form of democratic expression, but a tool to punish someone and put up a facade to support whatever cause they want to claim.
Owens’s analysis is most shallow in his section called “Cancel Culture Been Here,” where he writes that “MLK cancelled racial segregation in America.” As the liberal Pew Research Center showed, since the 1970s the racial wealth gap has widened in America, and cancel culture could only play a constructive role in that widening because it celebrates only token progress.
Malcolm X made clear in his 1964 “Ballot or the Bullet” speech the difference between a Black revolution and a Negro revolution. A Negro revolution is not a real revolution and is composed of only token progress. Owens’s whole book celebrates token success of Black people and not actual success. Its clear that Cancel Culture promotes tokens.
He claims that the “March 4 Our Lives” event after the shooting at the Marjorie Stoneman High School “cancelled gun culture,” but delivering speeches did not cancel the lobbying power of the National Rifle Administration. They’re now stronger than they were before that march. Owens distinguishes Black Lives Matter from Antifa, and again fails to discuss the corporate controls over BLM by the Open Society Foundation. I found his defenses laughable. He defends Disney by saying they provide disclaimers that their films promote one culture over the other.
What is more fascinating to me is how Disney’s conglomerate with the Lifetime network has raked millions creating what Ishmael Reed has called a “Black Boogeyman” industry by creating monsters in Kevin Hunter in the documentary about Wendy Williams, and by creating a monster in Lifetime’s documentary about R. Kelly. Owens mentions the latter film and the “disgraced” Dr. Bill Cosby as proof that cancel culture works, however this way of looking at cancel culture completely eliminates any discussion of how consent figures into the behavior of those who accused R. Kelly and Dr. Cosby.
Those who ask about whether consent figures into these accusations are instantly accused of victimizing the victimizers and are immediately censored. This is why cancel culture is destructive.
Later, Owens writes very wisely that if you make a mistake you should be offered grace, however “we’re selective about who gets grace.” This is why cancel culture is detrimental and should not be celebrated. Owens mentions Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson being “cancelled” by the U.S. government for criticizing Jim Crow, but he misses the class dynamic and how discriminating racially maintained a certain profit motive for the elite.
His mention of Anita Hill avoided how she was wrongly coached by a California judge Susan Hoerchner who, as Charles Ogletree writes in his book “All Deliberate Speed,” told Anita Hill she was harassed by Clarence Thomas. Ogletree wrote her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. This told me, the reader of Ogletree’s book, that I should not have believed Hill’s claims. Nobody should have to tell you when you’re harassed. Anyone who did not experience your harassment, nor witness to your harassment, should not be writing your public testimony about it. But Hill seized her chance to try to use the media in a salacious disingenous attempt to cancel Clarence Thomas. Owens claims that Anita Hill was ignored but Catherine Blasey Ford was listened to. The claims of both women were dismissed. Its clear that Anita Hill was in fact listened to more than Blasey Ford. Professor Anita Hill listened to the wrong advice in their attempt to tank the nomination of Clarence Thomas who Joseph Biden as Senator voted for. Sexual harassment allegations are good for bored senate judiciary committee members, TV ratings, news headlines, but not for logical arguments about judicial qualifications. Owens fumbles Anita Hill.
Owens claims that since cancel culture, “we understand harassment and assault so much better.” This is not true. We understand how those with the capital and the ownership and exaggerate harassment and assault, and create monsters out of thin air. People argue that because so many women “came out” claiming they were assaulted by Dr. Cosby, then that means Dr. Cosby must be guilty. We also have many accusers including Janice Dickerson recanting their testimony and admitting that they were paid to make accusations. So we do not understand harassment and assault so much better.
We understand that anyone could be paid to claim assault and harassment, and get away with it.
As Owens writes in his last section, “imperfect people are determining imperfect scales of value.” I could not agree more. Those people made imperfect by their capital are sharpening their axes for their next victim that they believe their corporate agenda needs to cancel. In the last section of this book, Owens writes that “cancel culture has always been about power.” However Owens’s analyses needed to interrogate that power further.
Before reading this book, I despised cancel culture and after reading this book, I am more convinced that it should be ignored at all costs.
While I was not able to relate to the incomplete context provided by Ernest Owens book, I was able to completely, experientially, and theoretically relate to the complete context provided by Sam P.K. Collins in his book Babylon Be Still: How a Journalist-Educator Adopted an African-Centered Worldview.
This is a book that describes how Collins came to be an African centered journalist. At the time I am reading this book, I am infinitely more clear about my theoretical interests and my theoretical grounding which is, like Collins, thoroughly Pan-African. I highly recommend this book for those seeking context, identity and theoretical grounding outside of the conventional two-party Western political paradigm. The paradigm in this book is African centered, clearly grounded in the knowledge of Marcus Garvey, who is the subject of my forthcoming edited collection.
It consists of six parts, and each part has at least two chapters. The first part titled “Laying It Out, Plain and Simple” describes Collins’s beginnings as a journalist and his theoretical grounding as a Pan-African. Collins said “the universe blessed me with a circle of new people who shared my perspective and passion for institution building” (31). This is what makes the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the Black Panther Party so interesting to me because those who founded had this “passion for institution building.”
Collins also describes the function of white supremacy when he writes that “the system of white supremacy was designed to siphon African greatness for the benefit of the white elite” (33).
The second section called “Navigating the Academic Waters” discussed the progressive disillusionment with the NETROOTS conference which was a gathering of progressive activists started by Howard Dean. The third section called “Young Lion Awakens” includes articles from Collins’s independent media outlet AllEyesOnDC.com discusses Collins’s growth as a Rastafarian: “the further I drifted away from Christianity, the more aspects of the somewhat similar Rastafari livity resonated with me, especially as I carried along on my journey to a higher African consciousness” (62). In Collins’s article called “I’m Tired of Protesting,” Collins writes about the slogan
“Black Lives Matter,” Sandra Bland, and Ethiopians in DC, “unbeknownst to many, Ethiopians and African Americans share a history of rebellion against imperialistic European forces” (79).
His 2016 article called “It’s Not Over: Practicing Kwanzaa in the New Year includes a powerful manifesto: “nothing else can extinguish the economic power of violent police forces and genocidal figureheads better than a mass consolidation of Black finances” (100).
This is the opposite argument of Jared Ball’s book The Myth of Black Buying Power. Like Collins and unlike Ball, I’ve never believed this buying power is a myth. With crypto currency, it becomes more elusive and more potentially influential. I appreciate at the end of this section how Collins sees his work as a journalist and writer, in being able to shape the minds of his readers: “I’m planting seeds of revolution in their mind” (108). He continues: “viewers should have some media literacy and understand how and why their news sources present certain news and viewpoints” (108). This was an article about Kwanzaa and the new year and he said we should “become a more conscious people, breaking out of our mental slavery, one chain at a time” (109). This was a reference to Marcus Garvey’s 1927 speech warning his audience about the danger of “mental slavery” since the abolition of chattel slavery in the U.S. Civil War. This “mental slavery” is carried out by the mainstream media.
His fourth section called “The Politics of Nation Building” Collins describes his growth during the Obama administration: “during the age of Obama, I’ve taken a Black Nationalist political consciousness” (121). Of Obama’s policy, Collins writes that “after cutting Pell Grant funds often used for matriculation to historically Black colleges and universities, Obama chastised school administrators for mismanagement of funds and low graduation rates” (129). This is why Collins says that he will no longer vote Democrat.
Like Collins, I’ve abandoned the Democratic Party, especially after studying the tremendous impact that third parties have had on this country, from the Liberty Party in the nineteenth century to the Black Panther Party in the twentieth century. Collins defines his departure towards Black Nationalism when he writes: “Its a fear of mine that we’ll accept piecemeal change and not truly grasp the opportunity to write and create sustainable institutions that work in the interest of Black people” (141). He has an awesome article in this section called “Black liberals, their use of ‘Hotep,’ and ‘Ankh-Right’ and a Denial of a Nation Building’s Merits” where he writes that “it is my hope the Black liberals get to embrace their African heritage” (165). This is exactly what I thought while reading books by authors like Owens who just sound like they’re repeating Westernized corporate talking points that dismiss the importance of Pan African heritage.
His part five is called “Instilling Knowledge of Self in African Youth (2016 to 2019)” and resembles my experience teaching in a public charter school. Collins writes about resisting the identity of being a colonial educator when he writes:
“I wouldn’t make that total plunge [away from being a conventional, traditional educator to pursuing writing full time] until my termination from Paul Public Charter International High School on May 24, 2018. That event culminated a turbulent year during which I faced forces, in students and adult colleagues alike, that disregarded consistency, discipline, accountability, collaboration, honesty, and knowledge of self. Up until my last day, I espoused those principles, as taught to me by my family and in the readings of Marcus Garvey and others. Earlier in the school year, I applied for, and accepted, the opportunity to explain to a group of white educators in Pittsburgh the need for an African centered education for African youth.”
I appreciated Collins’s candor and his relating his own growth as a Pan-Africanist to trying to be a mentally stable public school educator. In his article “Leading the Charge: Equipping Our Black Youth with Knowledge of Self,” he describes the personalities that our youth are encouraged to adopt: “a false Black identity currently parroted in popular culture is rooted in criminality, sexual promiscuity, dysfunction, lack of industry, perpetual victimhood, economic immobility and a persistent source of otherness” (221). These are stereotypes promoted in the so called reality TV that’s only a reality for the producers promoting Black dysfunction.
I especially Collins’s literary analysis of Alice Walker’s 1973 short story “Everyday Use” which centers on a conflict between two sisters over a quilt: one college educated sister who wants to put the quilt in a museum and the other sister who didn’t go to college who wants her child to use the quilt to sleep with. Collins compared the personality types in that story to today’s personality types: “the young [college educated] African woman reintroduced as Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo…does not exemplify how the newly Africanized must treat well meaning family members struggling to reconcile their kin’s evolution in Afrikan consciousness” (227).
Collins insists that Wangero, known to the family as Dee, “squanders an opportunity to include her family in her Africanization” (231). Also, her sister Maggie who did not earn a college degree “ends up on top.” Collins concludes about Dee that her desire for the family quilt in the story was perhaps more about “a need to monopolize access to her lineage” (237). Collins compares Walker’s Dee to “a cohort of contemporary Afrikan-centered social media pundits and figures who abhor serious scholarship and lack nuance in their assessment of complicated Afrikan freedom fighters.” Collins writes that “they embrace their ancestry not out of respect, but out of a desire to appear the purest among the collective” (239-40).
I couldn’t help but remember Stephanie Mills telling Vlad TV that Black journalists like Gayle King should not be exploiting Black artists like R. Kelly and how it behooves Black journalists in their coverage not to promote racist stereotypes and try to appear “the purest among the collective,” but to genuinely respect their ancestry through their coverage.
In his sixth section titled “The Covid-19 Files,” Collins has three very important articles. In his first article in this section titled “An Open Letter to My Fellow Pan-African Nationalists,” he writes that “throughout the 20th century, too many organizations fell to the wayside because the surveillance state manipulated internal squabbles” (241).
Like Collins, I am excited about being able to apply the principles taught by those conscious who came before us in order to avoid being manipulated.
Collins himself in this article writes that: “I doubled down on my commitment to rectify schisms within myself and my African family” (245). Collins describes a criteria that eliminates those forces which are using their token position to advance white supremacy: “the quintessential Pan African revolution will revolve, and only revolve, around those devoid of ego who’ve expressed a commitment to their healing and that of their family and community” (247). That includes de-programming from the colonial order and deconnecting from those subconscious thoughts that keep us tied to the colonial order.
Collins provides more details at the end of this article when he writes that “we must strive to raise above our differences and commit to direct action that produces more results of merit for several generations to come” (257). His last article in this section titled “The Creator: A Conduit Between Africans and the Ancestors specifies” the direct action he mentioned: “by mentioning the Most High through prayer and a pious lifestyle, the Africans of yesteryear kept their environments clean and gained internal foresight and knowledge needed to imagine and create—their heaven on Earth, before and during European colonization and terror” (275).
His last article argues “the masses we want to cajole into a liberation mindset don’t exist…because a segment of our population has espoused individualism to the point where they’re ready to defect from their group and create another entity within minutes of a verbal disagreement” (294). I found his most conclusive statement to be “those of us with the heart of lions must close ranks and learn all that we can in separating away from this society” (297). His last points remind all of us of how Africans came to the West: “chattel slavery and subsequent forms of European exploitation thrived on the cooperation of Africans who lacked courage and fidelity to Pan African nationhood” (299).
Collins’s book leaves me motivated to not allow the surveillance state to manipulate squabbles with me or Africans I know to continue the centuries long exploitation. Collins’s book underscores the importance of theory which is, how you look at or study an event, person or phenomena. His book encourages me to understand the ease with which nation is maintained. -RF.