Changed my mind about cancelling that indie author

I went to a local book fair in Portland last weekend. Saw this author who got cancelled for an old blog post about cultural appropriation. She was just sitting there, no one at her table. I talked to her for 10 minutes, she admitted it was dumb and apologized back then. Made me think, do we really need to keep punishing people who already learned?

3 comments

3 Comments

willow_morgan8d ago

One mistake years ago and she's still paying for it? Sounds like people need to find better things to get upset about.

rubyschmidt8d ago

Five years ago that blogger got dragged for saying something stupid about Native American headdresses at music festivals. She apologized, took the post down, and actually talked to people from those communities about why it was wrong. The people who still bring it up probably never saw the follow-up piece she wrote or the work she's done since. Cancel culture is supposed to be about accountability and change, not a lifelong sentence for one mistake. If we can't let people grow after they've shown genuine remorse, then what's even the point of apologizing at all.

willow_morgan2d ago

But does one apology really erase the harm done? I get that she said sorry and learned from it, but that blog post still hurt real people. Those communities don't just magically forget the pain because she wrote a follow-up piece. Accountability means accepting consequences even when you've changed, and sometimes that means losing opportunities. The people who remember aren't being petty, they're protecting their culture from being treated like a costume. Don't we owe it to them to take their feelings seriously?