Page 22 - issue 29 En

ELITE ISSUE 29, MARCH 2021

They don't eat artichoke!

Mariam Elsafty, freshman.

Do you remember when you were in elementary People from all fields have been forced to embrace
school and that famous guy/girl decided to call-out cancel hood to some extinct. So, it’s fair to say that it’s
one of your classmates because he/she was an no longer a punishment only for elites. For example,
introvert, bullied him and called him/her a loser? Well, Johnny Depp has been totally cancelled because of
what would you expect if that introvert decided to Amber Heard, who claimed that she had been
silence that famous one by either telling him that they physically abused by him, his career has been in free
were so pathetic or even had the needed courage to fall. Lana Del Rey didn’t take it well when people said
give them a punch? Imagine with me what the reaction that her songs don’t empower women. The artist tried
of the famous ones’ friends would be. No doubt, they to make a point on Instagram and said that many other
would decide to ruin his upcoming school years. female artists didn’t do that. She named Doja cat,
Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, Cardi B, and Nicki
Why do I bring this up? Well, I do so to talk about a Minaj, but her followers didn’t take it well. People
social issue that is suffering from a lack of reason, highlighted that it was not a good thing that she tried to
empathy, and measured judgment. I am talking about throw other singers under the bus. They also called her
cancel culture. It’s essentially getting expelled from racist, since most names Lana mentioned were black
society in which a person deemed to have committed a singers. She denied she was racist, but the hashtag
social crime, past or present, is dealt with punishment #lanadelreycist was on trending topics, and she was
in the form of terminated employment, public cancelled.
humiliation, or complete boycott altogether.
There’s a disagreement about when the phenomenon Unfortunately, cancel culture doesn’t help the creative
was actually created, with some saying it has been process. The ones where the mob dislikes a particular
with us in different forms for centuries. But what celebrity or show and goes on to reach out any
makes cancel culture unique? In a sense to our time, affiliated companies to try and cancel their affiliation.
it’s the fact that its effect is now much larger than just Otherwise, they risk being cancelled themselves.
a crowd or a locality, it’s the entire social media Studies have shown that these boycotts have economic
audience. Any news spread rather quickly on social significance with as much as one in four of them
media, but bad news spread really quickly, especially forcing significant changes. And while they may seem
when it’s about the career ending tweet of a very like an example of power that customers hold in a free
famous author, actor, scientist or whatever comes on market setting, which it is, let’s think about it for a
your mind. second

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