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[soft music]

♪ ♪♪

[clicking]

[upbeat music]

- Cancel culture--
- Yeah.

- What does that mean to you?

- It’s such a broad term.

- Nobody knows what
the standards are.

- Cancel culture
is a form of protest.

- People being able
to voice their opinions

who weren’t heard before.

- Some call it cancel culture.

I call it,
that’s what your ass gets.

- It’s based
on a false binary system.

I’m good.
You’re bad.

I’m right.
You’re wrong.

- Did you hear what he said
in that interview

in "Playboy" in 1970?

- Everything’s funny
till it happens to you.

- I am a person
who doesn’t really

believe in cancel culture.

I believe
in canceling as a process.

- I believe you can call
people out on their shit

and not cancel them.

- There’s no trying to
understand what you did

or give you a chance
to change that.

It’s like, no,
you did something rotten.

That’s it.

- In the old days, you’d go
and you tar and feather people.

- I went too far.
I’m a comic.

I crossed the line.

I went way too far.

- If your actual goal
is to disappear ideas,

yes, at a certain point,

that looks like the definition
of censorship.

- Dr. Seuss went from
being a beloved childhood

author to worse than Hitler.

- The right tries to use
the bogeyman of cancel culture

as this great threat.

- It’s a witch hunt.
It’s a sham.

It’s a hoax.

- This is the vantage point

you’re supposed to have.

If you deviate
from our worldview,

then you are un-American.

[gunfire]

- I’m not just talking
about the hateful rhetoric

of the right.

I’m also talking
about the oversensitivity

and crybaby-ness of the left.

- I better not say what I’m
actually thinking because then

I will definitely be canceled.

[laughs]

- Man, you see how woke I was?

I called you out.

- Jesus had points of view, and
the Romans did not like this,

and they crucified
him publicly,

literally canceled Jesus.

And even he came back.

Who’s getting canceled?

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪♪

[door rattling]

[tense music]

♪ ♪♪

- If there were anyone
you could uncancel,

who would it be?

- I think I’d
uncancel Will Smith.

- Well, I’m glad
this is a safe space.

I would uncancel
Michael Jackson.

I know, I know it’s so bad.

- Annie Hall used to be one
of my favorite movies.

And it’s really hard to watch
now because Woody Allen--

- I still listen to Louis CK.

- I think people might
judge me for still

listening to Kanye West.

- I’d like
to uncancel Morrissey,

but he hasn’t really
been canceled.

But he deserves
to be canceled.

So I think he
should be canceled,

and then I would uncancel him.

♪ ♪♪

- How would I define
cancel culture?

♪ ♪♪

- Um...

♪ ♪♪

- Sorry, I need a second.

- When people talk about
canceling and cancel culture,

I don’t hear a clear,
understood, or shared meaning.

- Well, there’s 20 different
definitions, right?

That’s part of the problem
we’re talking about this.

- If I had to define it,
I would say,

it’s people publicly stating

that they don’t like
what you do

and they want you
to stop doing it.

- A cancellation is when you
want to get them real good.

You want to punish them,
exile them, silence them,

and disappear them.

- You have to ask yourself
whether that works.

- It doesn’t work.

- Somebody decides they’ve
crossed some kind of line,

and this person
no longer becomes

fit for polite company.

- When someone like
Harvey Weinstein

is convicted
of sexual assault,

that’s not cancellation.

That’s the criminal justice
process in action.

- Yes, there are people who
should shut the fuck up.

But one person
or a small group decides

this is how we all think, this
is what is appropriate for us.

No.

- The Chicks’ hit
"Travelin’ Soldier" went

from number one
to oblivion in two weeks.

- We’re living
in this culture now

where you say the wrong thing,

and you’re canceled,
and that was 17 years ago.

- I think we were one
of the first to feel

that cancel culture.

- The big lie is, well, if you
have a right to say something,

then I have the right
to be offended.

- Just because you’re offended,
it doesn’t mean you’re right.

- People complaining
about things they don’t like,

people offended by things,
that has always been the case.

People were offended by Elvis
gyrating on "Ed Sullivan."

- ♪ You ain’t nothing but-- ♪♪

- Canceled, the Beatles
were canceled in about 1965.

- John Lennon said the Beatles
were more popular than Jesus.

- I’m not saying that we’re
better or greater or comparing

us with Jesus Christ
as a person or God as a thing

or whatever it is, you know.

I just said what I said,

and it was wrong
or was taken wrong.

- As a result
of this offhand comment,

people across the South start
burning Beatles records.

They get death threats.

- But that was
crazy Southerners.

That was crazy
religious people.

- Ku Klux Klan,
being a religious order,

is going to come out here.

We’re known
as a terror organization.

I think we have--
- A terror organization?

- We have ways
and means to stop this.

- Canceling has long been
a part of our history.

- Shame on you, shame!
- Shame on you!

- You are hereby sentenced
to be canceled.

- We called it public shaming.

We called it rejection.

We called it
ostracizing people.

- We don’t have
a scarlet letter

that we can affix
on people whenever

we want to call them out.

We didn’t have a problem
with cancel culture

when it was only
the powerful people

canceling the powerless.

It’s only when the people
who used to be punched down

upon start punching back,
all of us think,

ahh,
there’s a cancel culture!

This is awful.
This is awful.

- What’s the issue here?

Is the issue when people
of color start talking back?

When women start talking back?

And that’s cancel culture?

No, that’s free speech.

That’s actually
the freest kind of speech.

You’re actually getting
a back and forth.

- This country stands
for freedom,

liberty, justice for all.

And it’s not happening
for all right now.

♪ ♪♪

- Is that Colin Kaepernick
injecting

politics into the NFL?

No, that’s the NFL

injecting politics.

- The advent
of social media has

taken this idea of cancel
culture and created a monster.

- Is it actually good
to have massively

important communications
platforms that, in some ways,

really are like a digital
town square in the hands

of whatever billionaire
happens to have

the funds to purchase them?

- So social media allows
everybody to chime in

and spreads it
to the entire world.

♪ ♪♪

And I face it.

Anybody who’s been on
the receiving end of a dozen

tweets, I’m telling you,

you think the entire world
is against you.

- Outrage on Twitter
is a very scary thing.

- Outrage is good for clicks.

Outrage is good for business.

- Social media
companies realized

that anger and contention
gets people more engaged.

The algorithm has pushed people
towards contentious issues

and towards getting riled up.

- You have
the temptation to quote

tweet to dunk on someone.

- Would you classify
that as a death threat?

- There’s all these incentives
anyway for you to play Twitter

like this competitive game.

- Thank you for your rage.

- When you talk about examples
of people being canceled,

for most people who are paying
attention to the internet in--

I don’t know--
2012, 2013, it’s Justine Sacco.

- Was it, like, a joke
about Africa and AIDS

as she was on a plane
to the continent of Africa?

- Justine Sacco
is somebody who is only

famous for being canceled.

- So she had a job
when she got on the plane,

and she didn’t when she landed.

- She tweeted right
before she got on a 16-hour

flight to South Africa.

- What is it?

- How do you look at that
and go, like,

this will be received well?

- I remember thinking,
your job is public relations.

It’s a forward-facing position.

And you had no understanding
of how the internet worked.

- She turned her phone off.
And that’s a long flight.

- This is before Wi-Fi was
readily available on planes.

- People started
tracking how long it

was going to take
for Justine’s flight

to land in South Africa.

- It became basically revelry

on Twitter as people realized,

like, how much trouble
can we get this woman in

before the plane lands?

[upbeat music]

It turns out a lot.

- By the time she landed,
this was the number one

hashtag on Twitter,
#HasJustineLandedYet.

- She was canceled.

- She definitely lost her job.

- She works for a corporation.

The powers that be have a
right to say, you know what?

That was inappropriate.

- If somebody’s
done misconduct,

maybe they shouldn’t
have a job.

You don’t have a right to a job

or a TV show or anything else.

- It showed
this sort of crossover

from canceling being something
that happened within Black

Twitter with other Black people

to something that happened

to this powerful white woman

who no one outside
of her world,

outside of her business
really knew before.

- Whenever something
big happens on Twitter,

Black Twitter always
has a reaction.

- Black Twitter is
the water cooler.

It is the stoop.

It is the hair salon
and the barber salon

all sort of rolled in one.

- Man, shut your ass up.

- People love to say,
oh, if Dr. King had Twitter,

he would have got
more accomplished.

Would he?

How you know he wouldn’t
have just been up all night

arguing with trolls?

- Martin, come to bed.

- Coretta, I can’t.

Malcolm X still popping
off at the mouth.

I’ll snatch the bow tie
off his ass.

- In Black culture,
before we even had computers,

we had these ways of correcting
folks and putting them

in their place,
or at least letting

them know that they had
offended or slighted someone.

- You better think
about what you’re saying.

You better think about the
consequences of your actions.

- One of those ways
was "reading" someone,

and that is pronouncing things
that they don’t necessarily

want known about them.

And I’m going to tell you
exactly how it’s wrong

and where you should
get it together.

- What exactly is it that
you’re trying to say?

- I know a man pretending
to be a woman when I see one.

This is not that kind
of establishment.

- God may have blessed
you with Barbies

and a boyfriend named Jake
and an unwanted pregnancy

that your father
paid to terminate

so you could go to college and
major in being a basic bitch.

None of these things
make you a woman.

- We also have "dragging."

You’ve got that reading,
but it’s done publicly,

and it’s done in a way
that other people jump on.

- What did you think about
Nicki and Cardi’s altercation?

You were at that party.

- No, it was called
the Icon Party,

but there were no icons there.

- Oh.

- We’re not just
calling you out.

We’re canceling you.

You’re no longer
allowed to sit with us.

You can’t vibe with us.

We don’t rock with you.

That is where you started
to see canceling become

part of this Black
vernacular English

as it was performed online.

- Pepsi is in damage
control after being

accused of exploiting racial
protests to sell soda.

- Maybe it means
people of color

are starting a hashtag saying,
this person’s racist.

If that counts as cancel
culture, that’s good.

Those are good things.

- Even Martin Luther King Jr’s
daughter

Bernice sarcastically tweeted,
if only her father had known

about the power of Pepsi.

♪ ♪♪

- Before, if you were
a person of color or a woman

and you heard something
and you responded,

one, it won’t be
taken very well.

And two, you might
lose your job.

You might be attacked.

You might be lynched.

- The powerless
do need a voice.

But who makes the decision
of whose voice that is?

- If you’re using free
speech to try to prevent

someone else from speaking--

- Shh.

- I don’t believe
you can really say

you support free speech.

- You can still say
whatever you want.

You can get called
out for it and there

can be some fairly
frightening overreaction

that could lead to compromising
your ability to get work.

No one’s saying
you can’t say it,

but you better make sure
you’re up for the ride.

- And as George Carlin
famously said,

I like to find out
where the line is,

cross it deliberately,

and make the audience
happy that I did.

And we don’t know
where that line is.

You tell us.

And then you’re
going to turn on us?

ink c culture is mostly just

people facing consequences.

Then the question becomes,
are the consequences

in line with what they did?

- There’s no reason to cancel
Kathy Griffin for having

sharp takes on our leaders.

- I would definitely
uncancel Dave Chappelle.

I think that it’s very
important that comedians

can say whatever they want to.

- Oftentimes, comedians
feel that they are able

to speak truth
to power in a way

that many other people cannot.

- Police choke
niggas to death.

I mean, you’ll be dead
when they through.

Yeah, two grab your legs,
one grab your head.

It’ll snap.
Oh, shit, he broke.

- People have to be less
sensitive to comedy.

Comedy is supposed to make you
wince and laugh at yourself

and say unmentionable things.

- One person does something,
they get canceled.

Somebody else does
the exact same thing, nothing.

You know,
like the kind of people

that play Michael Jackson songs
but won’t play R. Kelly.

Same crime, one of them
just got better songs.

- Cancel culture sucks
for comedians

because you worry about
someone taking something

you said the wrong way.

- It’s dark and it’s late
and you’re drinking,

and a lot
of moments are naughty

and there’s nobody around.

And you watch the same moment,
like, on your little phone

over morning coffee,
you’re like,

what’s the matter
with these people?

How can they--
how can they laugh?

Who can say such things,
you know?

- Tonight’s show contains jokes
about terrible things.

But these are just jokes.

They’re not
the terrible things.

[laughter]

There’s a huge difference
between doing

a joke about a rape--

- We all get it, you’re
saying something horrible,

but nobody means it.

Nobody’s really laughing
at the child

that got eaten
by the alligator.

- So I talk about
this Hasidic woman

who was walking
down the street

in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Another woman
comes over to her

and pulls off her wig.

And I say, that is something
I’ve always wanted to do.

That joke was put
on the internet.

All of a sudden, I’m getting

attacked by my community.

They come after me.

So I decided to take it down,
but they didn’t stop.

That’s what cancel culture is.

You’re not taking a look
at the whole person.

You’re taking one thing
that came out of their mouth

that you took a certain way,
and you decide, that’s it.

- Cancel culture is real,
it’s insane,

and it’s coming
to a neighborhood near you.

- Every time I watch comedians
complain about people

canceling them,
I think, man, you’re

so much funnier than this.

Just move on.

Learn to find some sort
of inner peace about this.

- All you have to do is
not be racist and not be

sexist and not discriminate.

That’s not a tall order.

So everyone complaining
about that is so annoying.

- There’s a lot of words
we don’t say anymore.

There’s a lot of ways
that we don’t talk

about marginalized people.

It has evolved through
the democratic process.

- Apu, a cartoon character
voiced by Hank Azaria,

a white guy,

a white guy doing an impression
of a white guy

making fun of my father.

- There have been very few
depictions of Indian-Americans

at all on TV.

- There was no Aziz,
no Mindy, no Khal,

no that dude who was on
"Lost" and that other dude

from "Heroes."

- So a lot of kids,
their only understanding

of an Indian-American
person was Apu.

- Attendant, I’d like some gas.

- Yes, I’m sorry,
I do not speak English, OK.

- But you were just talking--
- Yes, yes.

- I made a documentary
that was funny

and thoughtful and critical
of popular culture

and of "The Simpsons."

And where did I
learn how to do this?

From watching "The Simpsons."

I questioned this idea
of representation

and the history of minstrelsy
in this country.

You know that a white guy
does the voice?

- Huh?

- That’s what you do
as a comedian,

you tackle free speech
with free speech.

- How do you feel about that?

- Oh, I’m making a movie
about how much I dislike it.

- Do you understand why some
Indian-American actors

are offended by that character?

- Yeah, not just actors.

- I don’t think Hank
had any, you know,

evil intent or even
necessarily insensitivity.

I mean, you’re coming
out of a tradition

that needs to be corrected.

- People
in the South Asian community

have been fairly upset by
the voice and characterization.

- Did that surprise you?

- Not over time.

It did when I first heard
about it, absolutely.

- It was like hate and death
threats and the claim

that I was canceling
a character

and that was part
of this cancel culture.

- Something
that started decades ago

and was applauded
and inoffensive

is now politically incorrect.

What can you do?

- Is "The Simpsons" cancelled?

No, they’re still on the air
throughout the world.

Was Hank Azaria canceled
who did the voice?

No, Hank is still working,
and he should.

Is Apu canceled?

No, Apu is not canceled.

They didn’t kill
off the character.

The show just stopped using him
because they’re afraid to now.

- Some things will be
dealt with at a later date.

- If at all.

- Comedians talk about
timing in their jokes

and their delivery
and their punch line,

but there’s also something to
say about timing in terms of,

when does it resonate
and when does it not?

What we call today cancel
culture was the same thing

that was happening in the
1890s when Irish immigrants,

Jewish immigrants,
Black Americans were saying,

we don’t like to be the
targets of your racist humor.

If we had Twitter in the 1840s,
you know, Frederick Douglass

would have been trending
with his critiques

of blackface minstrelsy.

[soft music]

The folks who begin to
raise questions and concerns

are often the folks
who are thinking

through the consequences.

Is our status
and the way we’re treated

in this society connected
with how we’re talked about,

how we’re ridiculed?

- I think we got
something there.

- ♪ Fields of cotton
just die with blight ♪

♪ And my pappy reads
"Esquire" with delight ♪

♪ while my Alabama mammy
plays bridge all night ♪

- The main punchline
of the joke

is Black folks are
not like white folks.

So you white folks
in the audience,

you have something in common
that you don’t share in common

with the buffoon on the stage.

And what you share
in common is your whiteness.

- [vocalizing]

- Comedy has this historical
legacy until Ferguson,

until Black Lives Matter,

until 2020,
until George Floyd,

until you begin to see,
because of social media,

the visibility
of racial violence.

- OK, I’ll just
rip the Band-Aid

off right now and say it.

I did an episode
where I wore blackface.

The context was, well,
irrelevant because it’s

not OK to do blackface, ever.

- These white comedians are
kind of realizing, oh, shit,

culture is shifting.

I got this blackface sketch
that I did a while back.

Now people on Twitter
are sort of sharing it again.

Oh, crap, I’m being canceled.

- I played an ignorant woman
in a liberal bubble

who thought
she was illuminating

racism by wearing blackface.

What I didn’t realize then
is that, in reality,

I was an ignorant woman
in a liberal bubble

who thought I was illuminating
racism by wearing blackface.

- So here’s where you begin
to see this kind of anxiety

over, quote unquote,
"cancel culture."

- A nigga came up to me
on the street the other day.

He said, careful,
Dave, they after you.

I said, what?

[laughter]

One they or many theys?

- Chappelle’s criticism is
definitely from the left

because he’s delivered
a string of transphobic

stand-up bits
over multiple stand-up sets

across the country.

- I am not saying that to say
that trans women aren’t women.

I am just saying that those
pussies that they got--

You know what I mean?

- Dave Chappelle,
in my mind, was

very vulnerable in displaying,
on a stage, his ignorance.

He even talked about
having a trans friend

that he was very much
admired in conversation

with, kind of like the
racist white people

who have a Black friend.

♪ ♪♪

- People’s sensibilities
have shifted over time.

The stuff that was funny 20
years ago doesn’t work now.

And I don’t think that’s
the fault of cancel culture.

I think that it’s just part
of the reality of being

a comedian that if you want
to be a famous comedian,

you just have to deal with.

- Netflix employees
staging a walkout

in protest of the streamer’s
latest Dave Chappelle

special in which the comedian
mocks transgender people.

- If your satire is punching
down, you are being a bully.

♪ ♪♪

- When you speak
your mind like that,

there’s a lot more
simple-minded,

hateful people that are going
to cause real problems if not

death to these people
that are just

trying to find a way to exist.

And is it your responsibility
to be sensitive to that?

I would say yes.

♪ ♪♪

- A lot of people who believe
that cancel culture is

a threat will
bring up Chappelle.

Look what they’re doing
to the best comic alive.

Look how they’re
pushing him down.

Look how they’re silencing him.

- We have now had
in this country

more controversy over
Dave Chappelle making jokes

about transness
than we had over Joe Biden

completely surrendering
an entire country

to the Taliban, which shows
you where our priorities are.

So good for him for saying no.

- It shouldn’t be this scary
to talk about anything.

- In First Amendment law, we
talk about a chilling effect,

we talk about the idea
that if you see someone who

has way more resources than you
or has more power than you go

through a really tough thing,
and they survive it

but you know you couldn’t,
that’s going

to have a chilling effect.

- Dave Chappelle
wasn’t canceled.

He was criticized
for his trans material.

Then he got more
Netflix specials.

[soft music]

- I think when it
comes to politics,

cancel culture can
be super toxic.

It’s like both sides just
want to cancel the other side.

- I think that Al Franken
should be uncancelled.

I think he was unfairly and
politically run out of office.

- Nobody’s going
to agree on everything.

Sometimes I think people are
really quick to cancel people.

- To the right,
cancel culture has

unfolded in a way
that is uncontrollable

and coming for you.

- Do you get the feeling
that the lunatics

are running the asylum?

- [kissing]

- Pepé Le Pew was accused
of promoting rape culture.

- When you say
that there is a process

or a thing called cancel
culture, what you’re saying

is that these people who are
attempting to hold others

accountable and responsible
for their actions

are actually somewhat debased
in their approach.

- The seductress green M&M
will now wear sneakers.

- The term cancel culture
is chiefly

used now by its critics.

They’re just using
that language

selectively to kind of troll.

- I do not like
green eggs and ham.

I do not like them, Sam-I-Am.

- When the right
weaponizes cancel culture,

what they really mean
is progressives.

They don’t mind the right
wingers canceling

people for right wing reasons.

They’re fine with that.

- Target customers reportedly
knocked down pride displays

and posted threatening videos
on social media over some

of its LGBTQ+ merchandise.

- What they really
object to is people

who disagree
with their politics

or disagree with
their cultural values.

- This month, I celebrated
my day 365 of womanhood.

And Bud Light sent me
possibly the best gift ever,

a can with my face on it.

[gunfire]

- [bleep] Anheuser-Busch

♪ ♪♪

- So now you’re
going to not drink

Bud Light, your favorite beer,
because a trans

person drinks it?

It’s hate.

- For the first time
in a long time,

Bud Light was dethroned as the
number one beer in America.

People were voting
with their wallets

against a sort of woke agenda.

- Large corporations
have calculations

about the bottom line.

That might be affected.

But both the right wing
versions and the left wing

versions isn’t going to be
a very effective strategy

for social change
because all you’re ever doing

is just buying
the product that will enrich

one set of corporate
overlords rather

than the product that
will enrich a competing

set of corporate overlords.

And yeah,
that is just capitalism,

and I think that’s the problem.

- The goal of cancel
culture is to make

decent Americans live
in fear of being fired,

expelled, shamed--

- Conservatives have
created a moral panic

out of what is called cancel
culture into civil society

more broadly.

And they’re saying this is
an out-of-control problem.

- Would you mind defining woke?

Because it’s come up
a couple times,

and I just want to make sure
we’re on the same page.

- So I mean, woke is
sort of the idea that--

this-- this is going to be
one of those moments

that goes viral.

- It’s creating this idea
that America has lost its way.

And why?

Because we’ve given
too much ground

to all these complaints
and demands

of the Civil Rights Movement.

- Florida is where
woke goes to die.

- Florida’s Don’t Say Gay
bill would ban

classroom instruction
on sexual orientation

or gender identity.

- Grievance is what
drives almost all of this,

people that see themselves

as victims because
their entitlement has

been infringed upon.

- I have been blacklisted
for exercising

the right of a mother to defend
her children and all children

against their being
recruited by homosexuals.

- And what they
barter in is that,

like, how dare these people
publicly live this life

when there’s children around.

- We tried to avoid it
and every--

- These are the same people
who talk about canceling

as some phantom menace
for their issues

while they are the ones trying
to cancel the culture,

trying to take control of it,
and abusing government power

with attacks on free speech.

[cheers and applause]

- Texas banning books,
but we’re protecting the kids.

Until a drag queen
walks into a school

and beats eight kids
to death with a copy

of "To Kill a Mockingbird,"
I think you’re

focusing on the wrong shit.

- The same folks
that are complaining

about cancel culture
and how it’s uprooting

American society
are the same folks

who are now banning
affirmative action

or banning ethnic studies.

- It’s really hypocritical
for the party that freaks out

about faux censorship
and cancel culture

to cancel an idea
that they just don’t like.

- The right has been masterful
in taking on this language

of cancellation.

- They know that
if they can force

you to watch as they topple
your heroes, they have won.

- One of the places
where the left loses ground

is in this idea
of absolutism and purity

because it doesn’t leave
any room for failure,

moral or otherwise.

♪ ♪♪

- A few months ago,
there was this comedian that

got kicked off stage
at Columbia University

for telling a joke that was
deemed racist and homophobic.

The comedian was me.

This is how the joke goes.

This is how you know that
being gay cannot be a choice,

because no one
would choose to be

gay if they’re already Black.

[laughter]

- It’s a good joke, but it
takes it right to the edge.

- No Black person ever wakes up
and thinks, you know what?

This Black shit-- too easy.

[laughter]

- That joke prompted three
of the show’s producers

who were also students
to cut his mic off.

- From a cancel culture
perspective, I said some shit,

and they thought I
was saying something

wrong that they didn’t like.

And so they came on stage,
like, all right, you got to go.

That shouldn’t happen,
but, you know, it did.

Two days later,
I was trending on Yahoo.

Three days later, I got
an email from Tucker Carlson.

- This is Columbia.

Like, these are supposed
to be the smartest,

most sophisticated young people
in America, certainly the ones

with the highest SAT scores.

- Two emails
from Tucker Carlson.

Hey, Nimesh, come talk
about this on the show.

I was like, nah, Tuck,
you’re too thirsty for this.

- Comics, regardless
of their politics,

find themselves becoming
the heroes of a right wing who

is always searching desperately
for signs of the left

eating their own.

- I was featured on Breitbart.

Me, a hero on Breitbart.

That’s how you find out who
your Republican friends are.

Hey, man, I just saw
you on Breitbart.

You read Breitbart?

I thought I knew you, Jared.

What the fuck?

But that didn’t
really bother me.

That’s the right wing
has an agenda.

But that goes back
to the left wing shit

I’m talking because then I got
called racist and homophobic.

If I were more willing to play
that, yes, I am a victim,

this is crazy, sure,
I think my bullhorn

would have been louder,
but I didn’t feel that way.

I didn’t feel
a victim of anything.

If this comedy shit don’t
go the way I need it to,

my sex tape will be me
fucking a gay Black man

wearing a Columbia
University sweatshirt.

[laughter]

I’m Nimesh.

Thank you so much
for coming out.

- Yes, there are appropriate
times to call people out--

when they’re abusing
power over each other

or they’re continuing to do
that intentional harm

or when the people who are
getting most harm are silenced

or the harm is invisible.

There’s a good reason
for using call out,

but it’s an overused tool.

Just because you’re a hammer,
everything ain’t a nail.

- So where do we go from here?

- I’ve been doing the work.
[laughter]

- How?

- Pepé love women,
but what Pepé needs to do now

is listen to women.

And of course, I am
in treatment for sex addiction.

- Those people who are
celebrities or who are really

prominent people, they have
a different lived experience

than someone
who is being canceled

perhaps in their high school.

That’s a completely
different thing.

[soft music]

- When you feel safe,
when you can just

be who you are and not
have to worry about being

canceled but also
being called out,

I think that’s a safe space.

♪ ♪♪

- There are a lot
of people who get

canceled for bullying somebody
in middle school or, like,

saying one wrong thing.

And I’m like,
10 years later, and they’re

losing their whole
careers over saying

one thing that could be a lie.

I don’t know about that.

- I was involved in
a situation where I was told

I caused harm to someone else.

I still don’t know exactly
how they felt hurt.

We never spoke.

I’ve done all that I can
to hold myself accountable,

to learn and grow
in a healthy way.

It took me a long time to,
like, convince myself

that I was worthy of that,
that I was worthy of growth,

yeah, just worthy to exist.

- I ran into the call-out
culture a lot as a professor

because I’m in classrooms
with all these young people,

walking around on eggshells.

They’re used
to those gotcha moments.

- A battle over free speech,
academic freedom, and claims

of Islamophobia
at Hamline University

is getting national attention.

- In an online lecture during
a global art history class,

an adjunct professor showed an
image of the prophet Muhammad.

- Within the scope
of the course,

one of the things that we
study is world religions

and their visual cultures,
images of Holy figures,

of Buddha, Jesus Christ,
and the prophet Muhammad.

- She told
"The New York Times" she

took precautions
before showing her students

a depiction of the prophet.

She put a warning
in her syllabus,

asked students to contact her
with any problems,

and also told the class
right before the painting

would be shown in case
they wanted to leave.

- The image that I showed
is frequently taught

in art history classrooms.

I have colleagues who are
both scholars of Islamic art

history, some of whom
are Muslim themselves,

who show this image regularly.

- But a student complained
to university administrators.

- I am 23 years old.

I’ve never seen
a picture of the prophet.

♪ ♪♪

- I never felt that
she didn’t have the right

to feel what she did.

- Today, the Council
on American Islamic Relations

said that the professor’s
warnings weren’t enough.

- Islamophobia can manifest
in a variety of ways.

The reality is
that trigger warning

is actually an indication that
you’re going to cause harm.

- The situation had
escalated so quickly

over the space of a weekend,
that anything that I

could say or do was moot.

- As a result Dr. López Prater
will no longer teach there.

- There was this campaign
of vilification.

I did not feel safe on campus.

- The American Association
of University Professors

is adamant the University
is in the wrong

in dismissing the instructor.

- Now, whenever she applies
for a tenure track position

and they Google her name,
it’s inextricably

intertwined with this
allegation of Islamophobia.

- Cancel culture
just seems like

a rather expedient
and tawdry way

of getting rid of a problem.

- If you are a teacher
that completely messes up

a depiction of a person
or a group, in some cases,

people should absolutely
lose their jobs

because they are harmful.

But in many cases,
there are opportunities

to educate, there are
opportunities to point out

what’s wrong within the systems
that we have built.

Unfortunately,
that’s hard work.

- As a high schooler,
there definitely needs

to be more space to grow.

Schools are students’
whole world.

And you’re expected
to already know who you are.

I think that that’s an issue
in not letting people

grow when they make mistakes.

Kids are mean.

And I think
kids will always bully.

And cancel culture is just
the new guise that bullies

will take to inflict
harm upon someone.

- There is this sense
sometimes of the way

of me making change is
to be as judgmental as possible

about other people.

- 27-year-old journalist
Alexi McCammon out

as "Teen Vogue’s" editor in
chief before she even started

after anti-Asian
and homophobic screenshots

of tweets of hers
from 10 years ago

resurfaced this month.

Even after publicly
and privately

showing remorse multiple times,
the backlash continued.

- The whole point
of being a teenager

is that you make the worst
mistakes of your life.

Maybe there needs to be some
mechanism of forgiveness,

some mechanism of redemption.

- That’s not activism.

That’s not bringing
about change.

- We haven’t thought through
what it means to be restored

after you’ve been canceled.

For those people
who are willing to accept

the idea of personal evolution,
there has to be room for them

to be able to come back.

- 18.

- If people are
genuinely willing

to learn from their mistakes,
then I think

we should maybe reconsider
the degree to which

we’re willing to cancel them.

- I think it’s just
complicated and there

needs to be more conversation,
and empathy, and sympathy

and not so much shame.

- I just don’t believe
in canceling people.

- If we give people the room
to grow and learn and breathe

through their mistakes,
we might have a more loving,

better society
where we didn’t have

as huge of a cancel culture
or maybe not one at all.

♪ ♪♪

- ♪ Sometimes people
make mistakes ♪

- I am so sad.

- ♪ Simply because
they made a mistake ♪

- What occurred
was unintentional.

- She is apologizing for what’s
being called the tweet

heard around the world.

- I’m truly sorry that Pistol
and Boo were not declared.

♪ ♪♪

- Love will make
you do crazy things.

- I do hope that this can
be a teachable moment.

- Oh, I’m sorry,
Michael, for racism.

- Teigen is the Susan B.
Anthony of cancel culture.

- I think about how
much I’ve changed

and how much I’ve
grown and learned.

- Comedian Shane Gillis
is out of a job.

I’m a comedian who was
funny enough to get SNL.

That can’t be taken away.

- These stories are true--
the power I had over these

women is that they admired me.

And I wielded that
power irresponsibly.

- I feel horrible.

- I should have never
posted the video.

I should have put
the cameras down.

- Y’all killing me
with this [bleep]!

I gave you 30 years
of my [bleep] career!

- Robert--

[laughter]

- I have sinned
against you, my Lord.

♪ ♪♪

- OK, let’s get started.

I’ve been canceled so many
times, I don’t count them.

One thing that’s helpful is
once you kind of get a feel

for how the dynamic works,

it does start to bother you
less because

you’re like,
oh, I know what this is.

You just don’t look
at Twitter for three days.

If you want to be
a public figure, if you want

to be a comedian,
if you want to be a YouTuber,

you’re going to get
canceled at some point.

And you need
to start practicing,

imagining how
that’s going to feel

and deciding how
you want to react.

♪ ♪♪

We’ll call this a bad tweet.

I apologize for tweeting it,

and I apologize
to any non-binary people

who felt trivialized by it.

We should try to keep
in mind when we’re watching

someone go through that
that, like, yeah,

they’re going to handle it
badly because everyone does.

But I also don’t really
see an alternative.

Like, what, we’re going
to stop using social media?

No.

- Wait!
Don’t I get a trial?

- No, this is a canceling.

No due process.

- If you want to showcase and
demonstrate how to be better

together, you try to make
sure that there’s a healing

space for both the person
who got harmed

but also the person
who did the harm.

And that’s what calling in is,
just simply asking,

what were you thinking
when you did that?

Do you think what you did
back then did any harm?

And if you could do something
different in the future,

what would it be?

Restorative justice, though,
only works when both parties

agree to participate in it.

- I would definitely gear
the restorative justice

program at my school
towards making connections.

I think that’s definitely
the most important piece

because when people
feel disconnected,

they feel ostracized.

- I believe that
restorative justice

is one of many paths
towards healing our society

and healing our world.

I don’t think
it’s the only path.

I mean, I believe
that there are

many paths to the mountaintop.

- She been canceled yet?

- Shh.

- How about, instead,
we have a dialogue,

we have discourse?

And then you can
make a decision

about what you’re going
to do with that information.

- We’re crafty people
with crafty skills

trying to do the right thing
without any lessons on how.

And if you can just remember
that when you’re thinking

you need to argue
with somebody else,

they got the same bad
skill sets you’ve got.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪♪

- This is all natural progress
that should be happening.

- Hey.
How are you feeling, Ed?

- All right.

- We all have to grow,
and we all

have to listen to when people
say the things we’re doing

are harming other people.

- Being thoughtful
is not cancel culture.

That’s part of a good society.

We’re supposed to be
questioning what we say

and what we hear.

- In free speech,
voice is voice.

Voice is not extinguishing
others’ voices.

- My biggest fear is that we
who believe in human rights

will snatch defeat
from the jaws of victory

with our call-out culture.

♪ ♪♪

With truth, time, evidence,
and history on our side,

we’ve got the winning hand,
if we don’t blow it.

[upbeat percussive music]

♪ ♪♪