Cancel culture

Cancel culture, form of social ostracism in which individuals, groups, or institutions face public backlash—often on social media—because of perceived objectionable behavior, statements, or values. Withdrawal of support often aims to deny or frustrate the expression of the called-out party’s beliefs or work. Those who have been “canceled” often face significant social and professional repercussions and may even lose their jobs.

Origins

The term cancel was first applied in an interpersonal context in 1981, when the disco band Chic released its album Take It Off, featuring the song “Your Love Is Cancelled.” The term was then featured in Mario Van Peebles’s film New Jack City (1991) in a scene in which crime boss Nino Brown (played by Wesley Snipes) says, “Cancel that bitch” after a fight with his girlfriend. Rappers 50 Cent and Lil Wayne both referred to that line in their music in the mid- to late 2000s.

A 2021 story in The Washington Post also highlighted that the term had gained popularity among Black users on Twitter (now X) in the mid-2010s “only to be appropriated into the White mainstream and subsequently thrashed to death.” White conservatives, according to the piece, used the term “cancel” to mock the young Black Twitter users who had popularized the term.

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According to research by Middlebury College’s Media Portrayals of Minorities Project, the term cancel culture first appeared in major U.S. news outlets in 2018. By 2021 more than 1,000 stories mentioned cancel culture across such prominent publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.

Examples

Celebrities and politicians are frequent targets of cancel campaigns. Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, comedian Louis C.K., and actor Russell Brand, for example, were canceled because of sexual misconduct allegations. Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo was also canceled in response to allegations of sexual harassment, after which he resigned.

Congresswoman Liz Cheney was canceled by some of her supporters and ousted from her leadership position in the Republican Party after accusing Pres. Donald Trump of playing a role in the January 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. CNN described Cheney’s failed 2022 bid for reelection as just one of many consequences of Trump’s purging of Republican opposition. Often, when a politician is canceled by their own party, the politician may be accepted by the opposing party. In Cheney’s case, 2024 saw her campaigning with the Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris—a strategy one commentator described as a “fiasco.” People of notoriety in other fields have also been canceled. In 2021 John Gibson, the former CEO of Tripwire Interactive, a video game development and publishing company, was canceled after posting his support for Texas’s antiabortion legislation on Twitter (now X) and subsequently lost his job.

Cancel campaigns have also been launched in response to the opinions and actions of ordinary people, though such campaigns may be more limited in their audiences. In 2018 Peter Vlaming, who taught French at a Virginia high school, was called out and fired because he refused to use a transgender student’s personal gender pronouns. Vlaming, however, was ultimately compensated $575,000 after the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled in his favor. Quaker’s Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup was canceled and boycotted during the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement over the company’s use of a mascot based on the “mammy” racial stereotype. In 2021 Quaker’s parent company, PepsiCo, renamed the brand Pearl Milling Company and replaced the Aunt Jemima image with a 19th-century water mill.

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Celebrities

• Kanye West has faced multiple instances of being canceled. In the mid-2010s the rapper and fashion mogul expressed support for Trump and made several controversial remarks, including that slavery in America was a “choice.” In 2022 he again faced backlash for making antisemitic comments. Many brands and companies stopped working with West in response.
• Canadian rapper Drake was not so subtly accused of befriending and chatting with minors in a public feud with American rapper Kendrick Lamar in 2024. Drake’s image was negatively affected, and Lamar headlined the Super Bowl LIX halftime show, during which he performed his most popular Drake diss track, “Not Like Us.” CNN called the track a sign that “a verdict was rendered—Lamar had unequivocally won.”
• Chris Brown was canceled after it was revealed that he had physically abused his then-girlfriend, the singer Rihanna, in 2009. Many fans defended the rapper, but he has not had anywhere near the level of fame since the incident.
• Lizzo faced being canceled in 2023 after a lawsuit alleged that the singer had been abusive toward her dancers. Allegations included sexual and racial harassment, fat-shaming, and disability discrimination. The singer was especially affected by the negative press because she had been hailed as a plus-size icon for years. Lizzo responded, “Only God can cancel me now.”
• Amber Heard was put through a massive smear campaign in 2022 during a lengthy and highly publicized trial in which her former husband, Johnny Depp, accused her of defamation. Depp first brought forward allegations of defamation in 2018 because of an op-ed Heard wrote in The Washington Post, in which she detailed instances of abuse she had faced during their marriage (though she did not mention Depp by name).
• Camila Cabello was called out on Twitter in 2019 for having used racial slurs on an old Tumblr account. The former Fifth Harmony (now solo) singer apologized for her language, but many fans were alienated. Normani, the sole Black member of Fifth Harmony, called the situation “devastating,” telling Rolling Stone magazine that the girl group was supposed to be a “safe haven and a sisterhood.”

Cancel culture and politics

Cancel culture entered the realm of politics after the popularization of the term, and in the United States both Democrats and Republicans held conflicting ideas about the concept. In 2021 Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert called cancel culture “a pillar of the Democratic Party.” The Republican Party’s opposition to cancel culture has been called a primary part of its messaging, although some pundits view the position as hypocritical.

A common debate surrounding cancel culture questions whether the practice of shaming those who have committed a controversial action holds them accountable or unjustly punishes them. A 2020 Pew Research Center survey found that Democrats were more likely to consider the practice of canceling as holding people accountable. Republicans, on the other hand, tend to believe that canceling people is generally unwarranted. Conservatives further argue that cancel culture is a form of censorship meant to discourage open debate, which they view as a threat to free speech. Political commentators, however, have pointed out that many conservative politicians have drafted legislation that prohibits LGBTQ+ symbols in classrooms and that many oppose expressions of protest that do not fit within a conservative agenda. Although cancel culture does not directly violate the First Amendment, it does affect freedom of expression, especially if it inhibits people from voicing their opinions for fear of being canceled.

Many debates about cancel culture center on whether those who are canceled deserve to face real consequences, such as being fired from their jobs, and whether it makes sense to dismiss someone outright for seemingly honest mistakes. A 2022 episode of the RadioEd podcast out of the University of Denver raised the question “How do you know when someone—a public figure or a regular person—has been punished enough? Or is there no limit to how extreme the societal alienation can be?”

See also Cancel Culture: Is Cancel Culture Good for Society?