This is a discussion on the case study of Carson King and the ethics of cancel culture. Carson King was a 24 years old when he requested funding for beer money (Armijo, Leake, & Stroud, 2019). He recieved more than $1 million in funds and spent it on one pack of beer. The rest he donated it to Stead Family Children’s Hospital (Armijo, Leake, & Stroud, 2019). Aaron Calvin, a reporter on Des Moises Register, uncovered old racists tweets that King published when he was 16 years old. This created a backlash and affected King’s reputation. It evidently made Anheuser-Busch, withdraw his funds made to King.
Kings racists posts from years ago, should not have been enough to “cancel” him. Reason being, he did a good deed and we should acknowledge him for it. He, instead of buying $1 million dollars worth of beer, donated millions of dollars to a Children’s Hospital. He got praise for doing so, therefore, encourages him to continue donating to charity. Lastly, his actions got recognition by the public; therefore, encouraging people to donate. For example, he got Anheuser-Busch and Venmo to donate to the same charity and raising more funds for the Children’s Hospital.
By punishing him through vanishing him from the public eye, only makes him seek recognition for his work elsewhere. Does cancel culture have a long lasting effect if participants will find a different means to doing what they want? I presume the answer to be no, because cancel culture does not seek understanding or communication to the differences of the two opposing parties. All it does is block the problem.
His posts from years ago, showcases the ethical relativism of when he was 16. Cancel culture only ignores the ways in which we can help an individual amend for their past mistakes. As Obama said “‘if all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far’ (Reub & Taylor, 2019)” (Armijo, Leake, & Stroud, 2019). We need to be more sensitive to others mistakes, and give them room to improve. If King was still tweeting racist or offensive content on his twitter, then cancel culture may as well be affective.
References
Leake, G., Stroud, S. R., & Armijo, A. (2019, December 04). Beer Cans and Cancel Culture. Retrieved September 14, 2020, from https://mediaethicsinitiative.org/2019/12/04/beer-cans-and-cancel-culture/
