What needs canceling

Toxic ideologies need attacking more than changed individuals

In a 2010 NPR interview with David Davies, former skinhead Frank Meeink talked about his experience in the Aryan Nation. “We would all meet down on South Street and we would drink and get ourselves revved up to go out and do missions,” he told Davies. “Missions could be anything from spray painting a synagogue, going gay-bashing, homeless bashing or fighting leftists, and that was our camaraderie. We went out and we did violence … We wanted people to know that we were young, violent and crazy. I ended up serving three years in prison because my roommate and I kidnapped a guy and beat him for hours.”

After he was released from prison, Frank returned to his life as a skinhead but soon realized his exposure to and experiences with diverse inmates helped him understand all humans were created equal.

As Frank worked to rebuild his life after prison, he volunteered with the Philadelphia Flyers and created a program called Harmony Through Hockey, which gives youth a way to be engaged and stay away from violence. Frank now gives lectures across the country about his life, where he shares strategies to help youth stay away from violence and crime, and how we as a nation can dismantle white supremacy.

Had we sought to “cancel” Frank after his crime-ridden days, he wouldn’t have the influence he has when it comes to impacting large numbers of young people. While many people believe cancel culture has its place, I believe instead of canceling Frank, we as a society should focus on the larger issue of canceling white supremacy, which is what fueled Frank’s actions.

From the halls of the United States Congress to the podiums of local school board meetings to the cell phones of the average citizen, we continuously see the call for people to be “canceled” due to a single questionable action. Many folks who scream cancel culture do not understand how it has been historically intertwined with Black pain, struggle and the fight for equality.

According to Ann Charity Hudley, former chair of linguistics of African America for the University of California Santa Barbara, canceling is “a survival skill as old as the Southern black use of the boycott.” This could be seen through the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s 1962 program, Operation Breadbasket. This program used the influential power of Black preachers and the church folks who were skilled at organizing to push corporations and businesses to create economic opportunities in Black communities. Dr. King said, “The fundamental premise of Breadbasket is a simple one. Negroes need not patronize a business which denies them jobs, or advancement [or] plain courtesy.” While trying to cancel businesses was unique to the mid-1900s, it was not unique to our country as a whole.

We could assume that the original American cancel culture event was in 1773 when frustrated and angry American colonists dumped 342 chests of tea in the Boston harbor because Great Britain imposed taxation without representation. While both of these forms of cancel culture have been viewed favorably over the years, only time will reveal if our current form of cancel culture is simply working to banish anyone who does not agree with another’s stance on a particular issue and if it will be praised in the same way.

In the mid-90s, Frank Meeink did not have to face the cancel culture mob, rather he experienced redemption culture, which held him accountable for his actions and allowed him to grow and evolve into the person that he is today. Nonetheless, white supremacy, which was the foundation for his actions, still exists in 2021. According to Bryan Stevenson, American lawyer and founder/ executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, “the great evil of American slavery wasn’t involuntary servitude. It wasn’t forced labor. It was this ideology of white supremacy this idea that Black people aren’t like white people, and we never really addressed that … and because of that, I don’t think slavery ended in 1865. It actually evolved.”

Many of us will never make mistakes that are similar to others’ mistakes, and we don’t have to. We can see someone else’s mistakes and learn from them. When people make mistakes there should be some level of mercy and grace afforded in a way where individuals can be held accountable and redeemed. I believe that instead of canceling individuals, we as Americans need to get serious about canceling deeply rooted toxic ideologies within our society. We can start with white supremacy.

Rickey Booker Jr., Ed.D., is a trainer, facilitator and consultant with the IDEALS Institute at the University of Arkansas Office for Diversity and Inclusion. His views are his own and do not necessarily represent the position of the University of Arkansas.