With the pandemic and the 2020 presidential election, we can all agree on one thing: there’s a divide in our country.
While our differences are meant to keep up learning, growing, evolving as a society, they are being used against us. We’ve seen the rise of “cancel culture”. Dozens of individuals and companies either “canceled” or ostracized or forced to change themselves to please everyone. From banned books and music to changes in toys and brandings, we’re definitely making differences, but are they all for the better? Have we become too sensitive?
Recently, in my journalism class while discussing the topic of food writing — a topic that, to me, had seemed so innocent — our professor advised us against writing anything that could offend someone or be taken in a bad way.
While I know there are things that are morally wrong, no matter how you spin it, what’s happening to our freedom of expression, our freedom of speech in this country? It’s our First Amendment, yet we’re being asked to remain silent as we walk around the eggshells that our society is becoming.
In all honesty, I hesitated to write about this topic, fearing that, while I have no malintent or mean to disrespect anyone, someone could read it and try to ‘cancel’ me. It’s wrong to live in that fear.
We all have rights as human beings, not even just as citizens of this country, to be exactly who we are, regardless of race, gender, culture or experiences. We’re supposed to be the United States of America, but lately, it just feels like we are all so divided, skin turned so sensitive and even the smallest breezes of spoken words cut like knives.
Will there come a point where we lead ourselves into a dystopian world like the ones we’ve read so much about? How do we stop ourselves from getting there before it’s too late?
We’re all different, with different ideas, beliefs and values, but that’s what makes us us. That’s what makes us human. It’s time for us to remember our humanity. It’s time for us to be empathetic and understanding towards others because, in different perspectives, we are others. It’s time to listen to each other instead of just canceling anything and everything that thinks slightly different than we do. We need to build back our strengths before it is too late.
