The recently appointed editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue magazine is now the former editor -- before she actually began in the role. Offensive tweets posted by Alex McCammond surfaced in which she commented of Asian features, derogatory stereotypes about Asians and slurs for gay people. This is obviously unacceptable and she had apologized for them a couple of years ago. The comments were from a decade ago when she was 17 years old. The call for her dismissal came from some of the staff at Teen Vogue, so this would have been an untenable situation. And as a culture we've decided that racist and homophobic attitudes can't be tolerated in a number of spheres.
Just the same, this situation with McCammond has some asking about the intensity of what is termed "cancel culture", the zero tolerance of attitudes and behaviour, regardless of when they took place. We know that teenagers can be reckless and attention-seeking. Do we hold them accountable for everything they've said and done out of immaturity for the rest of their lives?
And what about adults, particularly those of us born in the post-war era? We grew up in an unsavoury soup of racism, homophobia, and religious intolerance. Attitudes which were the norm when we were kids and into adulthood make me cringe today. As a boy in the early 1960's I loved playing war where we fought the Japs and the Krauts. Those we deemed skinflints were hymies, an offensive and stereotyping term for Jews. We made jokes about gay people. It was shameful.
I have repented of those sins along the way and attempted to do better. I'm grateful that I could apologize and move on from these mistakes as my outlook and understanding changed, and . I know that I'm not done yet.
At the same time, I'm convinced that historic crimes such as sexual abuse should be brought to light and the perpetrators brought to justice. There is no "stale date" on injustices perpetrated against Indigenous peoples.
During out study of the Sermon on the Mount the past few weeks we've discussed Jesus' teaching about letting go of anger and of attempting to reconcile with those we've harmed or who have offended us. Jesus tells us not to be hypocrites, to be fixated on the speck in someone else's eye when we have a log in our own.
Does this mean we should cancel "cancel culture?" I don't think so, but it's certainly complicated. Along with legal redress, and political and corporate responsibility we need to ask about our moral and ethical grounding. We can be committed in every day to being the persons of grace Christ calls us to be, and to create a society of justice and equality.
If you've got this figured this out, please let me know!
No comments:
Post a Comment