SINCE WHEN DID IT BECOME RACIST TO SAY ALL LIVES MATTER? WHAT IS THE CANCEL CULTURE AND HOW IT AFFECTS YOU?

Can you really say what you believe anymore?  In today’s politically charged atmosphere, do you really think you can express your opinion in a civil manner about the issues of day?  We have the shield of the First Amendment against government censorship.  But there is an alarming trend where Corporate America is acting as a censor with just as swift a reach as a college speech code enforcer.

Consider the case of Sacramento Kings play-by-play announcer Grant Napear. On May 31, 2020 just after the George Floyd, Black Lives Matter demonstrations, Napear authored a tweet which said “ALL LIVES MATTER… EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!.  Napear came under withering criticism from former Kings players.  In one tweet he was branded a “closet racist.”  The radio station where Napear worked fired him.  He also resigned as the Kings play-by-play announcer.  In a word Napear was cancelled.

Writer Aja Romano in the left leaning Vox website defined the “cancel culture” is the idea of “cancelling” a celebrity or public figure that makes a controversial statement [which is politically incorrect].  Calls come to “cancel the person­­– that is, to effectively end their career or revoke cultural cachet, whether through boycotts of their work or disciplinary action from an employer.”

Since when does stating “All lives matter” becomes a racist statement that merits “cancelling” someone’s career?  The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution enshrines equality for all lives because it mandates “equal protection of the laws”.  It does not say “whites get more protection than African Americans.”  Martin Luther King “I have a Dream” speech affirms the standard for a color-blind society when he said he wants his children judged “by content of their character” not color of their skin.  Have the civil rights advocates of 2020 abandoned King’s call for a color-blind society, opting instead for racial preferences?  The reaction to the “All Lives Matter” tweet shows that equal protections of laws and a color-blind society have now become controversial. 

The Cancel Culture demands are vicious.  They seek to instigate the kind of sudden change like that brought by Soviet commissar.  There can be no debate or persuasion.  Only bullying and the devastation of losing one’s ability to make a livelihood.  The crime? Thinking thoughts contrary to orthodoxy of tribalist high priests. There is no redemption.  The demand is to sign on to the Black Lives Matter Party line or be denounced as a racist.

As history has shown, if there is one thing a nation needs to keep on existing, is the necessity of mutual forgiveness and unity of purpose.  America’s Founding Fathers’ vision foresaw that a diverse population would comprise the United States.  In 1782 before the Revolutionary War was over, the Continental Congress officially adopted the Great Seal of the United States.  In the seal is the motto: E Pluribus Unum, which is Latin for “Out of Many, One”.  The motto appears in the bander above the American eagle. The seal of the United States appears on the back of the U.S. dollar.  The adoption of this motto defeats the recent criticism from the Left that the United States was founded on white supremacy.   At the time of the American founding there were numerous people with differing racial backgrounds living in the United States. 

The cancel culture is directly at odds with the principles in the Constitution and the established ideas that the many people in America should be one under the protection of law and freedom.  It is up to Americans of good will who oppose racial injustice and bulling to take a stand against the Cancel Culture.  The first way to bring unity is to at least have the goal that everyone matters, and everyone should be able to speak their mind.