I would be a pretty happy lady if I didn’t hear one more successful dude ever publicly whine about cancel culture ever again

Let me tell you as someone desperate to be right all the time: it will devestate you spiritually and relationally to stay in that space. People with power, and people from dominant culture backgrounds and blindspots, absolutely need correction.

Sometimes it will suck. Sometimes it will be public, or feel unfair. But if you hold yourself up as someone with power/influence, then you HAVE to learn to start to receive correction as a gift. A chance to say sorry, to repair relationships, to do better.

Here’s a little story: one time I wrote an article where I called myself fat (it was more about “feeling” fat. Which is not a thing) @AliaJoyH tweeted at me that since I wasn’t someone who experienced the stigma of being fat, it wasn’t great to position myself in that space.

It blew my mind! I had honestly never understood the systemic issues that people who are fat face in our society—and realized my not understanding was a part of the problem. I had the editor change the piece. To this day I’m so freaking grateful Alia took the time to educate me.

Dominate culture (and I would say Whiteness) takes situations like this and turns them into ones of scarcity: what’s the rule here? Will I never be allowed to speak again? Does everyone hate me? When really it’s so, so simple: platform requires responsibility to our neighbors.

(Also, I am someone who absolutely struggles with fundamentalism and see that being accurate for so many religious folks, regardless if they are conservative or progressive. I think that’s a separate issue, and find it interesting it is only trotted out in certain situations).