In 2019, Ernest Owens published a New York Times opinion piece, “Obama’s Very Boomer View of ‘Cancel Culture.’” The journalist was responding to remarks that the former president had made. Barack Obama had implored activists not to be overly judgmental of those who don’t measure up to “purity” tests. “That’s not bringing about change,” Mr. Obama said. In the opinion article, Mr. Owens countered that cancel culture has been vital to the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements. He expands on those ideas in “The Case for Cancel Culture: How this Democratic Tool Works to Liberate Us All.” Mr. Owens is an editor at large at Philadelphia Magazine and president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, and he hosts the podcast “Ernestly Speaking!” He spoke recently with the Monitor.
How do you define cancel culture?
Anything in which a person chooses to cancel ... a person, place, or thing that they feel like is detrimental to their way of life and their well-being.
Cancel culture has become a powerful and controversial phenomenon. To understand why people engage in it, it’s helpful to hear from a millennial journalist who draws comparisons with social protest movements of the past, including sit-ins and boycotts.
Let’s say you don’t want to go to McDonald’s because you think the burgers are nasty. That’s a critique. That’s a matter of taste. That’s not cancel culture. But let’s say you said, “I don’t want to go to...
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