Cancel culture is a relatively new 颅phenomenon. Adults can see that this as a new trend emerging, but for children, they may not remember anything else.
I鈥檝e heard children speak of people 颅鈥済etting cancelled鈥� in a cavalier way, not fully understanding its impacts on others, or society in general.
Cancel culture is tough, because we all see the world through our own lenses, 颅meaning different behaviours and actions mean different things to different people.
Everyone鈥檚 lens is important, and we should take more time to try to better 颅understand people鈥檚 lenses, than we do spending time disagreeing with people鈥檚 views.
Movements such as Me Too, Black Lives Matter and Every Child Matters have aided in sharing the lenses through which other people see situations. When we 颅better 颅understand how people see, feel and 颅experience events, we are more likely to understand their reactions.
My daughter and I were talking about cancel culture, how it works and those affected. I do not always agree with people being cancelled, and I know that could be based on the lens I see things through.
I told my daughter that when I was in middle school, I garnered a few nicknames that all stemmed from my Indigenous 颅heritage.
I was the only Indigenous person in my group of friends. I was adopted and raised in a non-Indigenous home, and I didn鈥檛 have any Indigenous role models.
No one told me that I should not have to deal with that.
I did not like the nicknames, but I thought it was normal and just friendly teasing. Some were so horrible that I don鈥檛 think the sa国际传媒 would print them.
During that time, I took a work 颅experience class where I would go to a local restaurant and help with tasks. One day, two middle-aged workers were talking about how Indigenous people weren鈥檛 even human, and said they were worse than animals. It was horrible.
I went back to school in tears and told my teacher. She called the restaurant. Later, my teacher told me that the workers didn鈥檛 know I was Indigenous. My teacher thought that was a valid point, case closed. The next day, a non-Indigenous student was sent to work there.
I share this story to add context to the time that I received these nicknames. It was inappropriate and hurtful to me and, unfortunately, that type of behaviour was more commonly accepted.
For me, I know that if any of these events occurred now there would be different responses to all of it.
Thankfully, our society has evolved and there are far more allies in the world than there used to be.
I continued the conversation, 颅explaining many of these old friends are on my 颅Facebook account. If I wanted to 鈥渃ancel鈥� them, which I don鈥檛, I would make a post and tag them in it.
I hope that they have grown in the 25聽years since that behaviour occurred. I am not perfect, and I am sure I鈥檝e made similar mistakes myself.
I don鈥檛 speak to those friends anymore, but in my heart, I believe they wouldn鈥檛 颅condone that behaviour now. I feel that if their children were acting this way, they would correct them.
Cancel culture has a time and place, but I don鈥檛 think it is something that should be treated lightly or a normal reaction to unpleasant circumstances.
