If you’re a woman, a person of color, a member of the LGBTQ+ community or a part of any other minority group, you’ve probably had the ethical versus great debate. It always goes something like, ‘They were a bad person, but…” — and there is almost always a “but.”
It turns out many people who we considered great, whether it be politicians, writers, actors or otherwise, turn out to have performed some not so great actions or said some not so great things.
Just recently, the estate in charge of managing the legacy of the classic children’s author Dr. Seuss announced that they would be halting the printing of several of his books due to racist undertones. It has caused a lot of discussion surrounding whether it was appropriate to effectively blacklist or “cancel” people, even if hundreds of thousands of people loved their work.
The short answer for me is yes, it should be. I’m tired of having the ethical versus great debate when it comes at the cost of the discomfort of different minority groups who continue to have their comfort and safety debated publicly just for some random person to stay relevant. I don’t care if you loved Dr. Seuss as a kid — I did, too — but when his own estate is admitting that some of his books are inappropriate propaganda, you have to give up defending him aimlessly.
It doesn’t just pertain to Dr. Seuss, either. Lots of other authors, like J.K. Rowling, or musicians, like R. Kelly, who are considered greats in their field apply to this kind of situation.
It’s okay to admit that people who we once looked up to were not good people all of the time, especially because doing so creates the space for new people to tell better stories, make better art, pass better legislation and so on.
My biggest problem with having the ethical versus great debate is that it not only makes people who are genuinely affected by their offenses uncomfortable, but it leaves them vulnerable to further harassment and abuse.
Defending someone from something like sexual assault charges, racist or homphobic remarks and so on is the perpetration of a toxic culture. If we excuse everything that someone did just because their work was considered great, we are only showing the people of this generation that they will not face consequences for the same offenses. What will stop them from doing the same things if we keep excusing every person who says or does something offensive? What are we showing those who are close to us that may be personally affected by those actions or remarks?
If we stopped excusing “the greats,” maybe we wouldn’t be facing as many arguments over social justice issues today.
I’m tired of having the ethical versus great debate. Let it go and let someone new have a chance at achieving greatness.
