We Need to Advocate For a "Redemption Culture" Instead of a "Cancel Culture"

During the period when I was writing my book, I would occasionally strike up conversations with people telling them what my book is about and why I decided to write it. Just about everyone, I talked to found the topic of race to be interesting but they were well aware that my viewpoints are not considered mainstream (even though most agreed with them). One of the questions that would come up occasionally was “Are you afraid of being canceled?” to which I always replied with “No.”

This question exists because cancel culture is real. I know people who’ve been targeted because their viewpoints were easily misinterpreted because they used the wrong word to describe a product that was deemed “problematic” and because they are expressing viewpoints that are counter to the popular narrative. While I don’t think it’s as prevalent as we would think, it is real and this mindset of discarding human beings for speaking incorrectly seems to be growing.

First, I want you to understand my position: I am a free speech absolutist and I am very principled in this viewpoint. I’ve been to places on the internet where people say some incredibly vile comments that I completely disagree with and I would much rather that these viewpoints can be expressed than for all of us to suffer in silence when we want to raise our hand and question the world around us.

Whether you realize it or not, either yourself or people you know, are choosing to stay quiet on certain topics because they fear offending people, but how do you grow if you don’t occasionally offend?