Enough With The "Off With Her Head!"-Think
Enough with capitulating to the mobs. Individuals in the crossfire -- like for tweets they made as a teen that no longer represent who they are -- have to say no. And companies need to say no.
At Editor & Publisher there are two side-by-side columns under the headline: "Was It Correct for Teen Vogue Editor Alexi McCammond to Resign After Old Racist Tweets She Made in College Were Discovered?"
Short answer: No.
Columnist #1: Cassidy Klingman, 19, sophomore, Lehigh Carbon Community College, Schnecksville, Pa. Klingman is the social media editor of The Paw Print, the college's school newspaper. She writes:
While McCammond's past tweets are completely unacceptable, it is not right to allow things she said in 2011 to end her career, one which is focused on uplifting people. By apologizing for her words and actively addressing the harm that was caused, McCammond and Teen Vogue would promote the idea that change is possible.I think it is important to note that she was 17 years old at the time of her posts. Of course, there is no excuse for racist behavior at any age, and her remarks should not be taken lightly. However, people can change in significant ways over 10 years, especially in their late teens and early twenties. The discovery of old tweets should not discredit who she is today.
Columnist #2: Clarence Page, 73, the 1989 Pulitzer Prize winner for Commentary, is a columnist syndicated nationally by Tribune Media Services and a member of the Chicago Tribune's editorial board:
Since she shows no signs of intent to become a repeat offender, I believe Alexi McCammond deserves a second chance.Yes, I believe her three tweets in question were offensive and childish, whether for public or private conversations--and nothing these days seems to be more public than a tweet.
I was also disturbed personally as an African American, like Ms. McCammond, that she was so insensitive and offensive toward Asian Americans. As a matter of simple decency, we don't help ourselves by demeaning other people, regardless of race or ethnicity.
However, in judging the content of her character by the content of her tweets, I cannot help but remember that she was 17 at the time, the same age at which I entered journalism as a freelancing high school student. It would be hypocritical of me to claim that, even for an exceptionally bright 17-year-old, bad judgement in the moment is an uncommon event.
To those who say "sorry" isn't enough, I say, let those who are without sin and have no regrets about anything they ever said or did--or tweeted--as a teenager cast the first stones.
McCammond is now 27. I'm a lot older than that. I came into newsrooms in the wake of the 1960s riots that led to diversity. A lot of us--white and "colored," as many still said--were apprehensive about the new diversity. We all had a lot to learn about each other and a lot of mistakes were made, some funnier than others. But long story short, we learned to get along. Most importantly, we learned how to be sensitive to each other's points of view and passed on those lessons to our audiences. Ms. McCammond made a mistake with her tweets long ago. To her credit, she has apologized--twice.
A lot has been said and written about "cancel culture" surrounding this episode. My larger concern is how her resignation shows the larger devaluing of apology in our culture as a gateway to two increasingly rare commodities: forgiveness and redemption.
This is going to drive people into the arms of the racists. Anyone who is kinda racist, who is kinda on the fence, has no reason to change and get woke because they will never be forgiven.
NicoleK at May 6, 2021 10:17 PM
Not even just the kinda racist. Also anyone who has said or done anything that can be misconstrued. Once you are out of the group you are out of the group for life.
But it is important to note she resigned. That was her sin. The mob doesn't offer mercy or forgiveness . . . but it is cowardly and forgetful. Don't give in. Don't give up. Explain and move forwards. The mob is looking for someone weak to bully. Don't look weak and they will move on to bully someone else.
This also highlights the difference between Nixon and Clinton. People still say it isn't the crime, it is the coverup. But that is bullshit these days. There is nothing Nixon did that presidents both before and after him didn't do. Nixon wasn't even part of the crime. As for the coverup, welcome to DC.
That is like saying it is wednesday. So what makes Nixon different? Nixon was a quitter. Clinton didn't give up.
Don't be a Nixon. Take it to the wire.
Ben at May 7, 2021 5:52 AM
People are products of their times and their surroundings, especially in their teenaged years. Not only do people change, but times change. What was once acceptable becomes, with the passage of time, decidedly unacceptable.
Likewise for things that were once unacceptable becoming acceptable - e.g., homosexuality, inter-racial marriage, cursing in public, etc.
The current SJW practice of judging every single utterance or action, whenever done, by today's standards fails to acknowledge or give any credit to the influence of time and surroundings.
That's the biggest problem with the SJW mindset. It allows no room for growth or introspection; no room for an inner life at all. Everything is judged by an arbitrary set of standards that changes with the victim du jour.
"Sentence first–verdict afterward." ~ the Red Queen
What Lewis Carroll saw as nonsense, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett saw as immaturity.
When those two authors needed an anti-Christ for their novel, Good Omens, they chose to make him a twelve-year-old boy. After all, who else but a pre-teen could be so sensitive to the injustices of the world, so emphatic about the need for change, and so impatient with the passage of time?
Conan the Grammarian at May 7, 2021 7:02 AM
I’m a Californian from a family that’s been here since the Gold Rush (at least). A couple of ancestral connections were Donner Party survivors. Did you know that it took many weeks to get everyone still alive out of the mountains even after Sutter of Sutter’s Fort was notified of the party’s stranding. He sent men immediately but it was high in the Sierras in a hard winter.
By SWJ standards, he should be “cancelled “ and everything in CA named after him renamed and I and my cousins receive reparations because he didn’t have them out in 24 hours or so via Sno-Cat or helicopter (which weren’t yet invented!). It’s a gross injustice to judge anyone’s acts by any but the standards of his/her time. By the way the rescue was completed at Sutter’s personal expense and some of his vaqueros died.
Cindy at May 7, 2021 9:36 AM
"That's the biggest problem with the SJW mindset. It allows no room for growth or introspection; no room for an inner life at all. Everything is judged by an arbitrary set of standards that changes with the victim du jour."
Exactly. Because increasingly stringent standards of ideological purity are really about gaining power. Call-out culture and cancel culture allow the woke climbers to ascend to greater influence and power as the unwoke are identified, shamed, and jettisoned.
Some people make their living this way -- some are paid only in social currency but others are making a lot of money off it -- so apparently it's actually worth their while to go back through 10 years of someone's tweets to find this stuff.
szoszolo at May 7, 2021 11:01 AM
"Take it to the wire."
Crid at May 7, 2021 1:22 PM
Exactly Szoszolo. The plan is to make you embarrassed or afraid so you quit voluntarily. McCammond resigned. She wasn't fired. The solution is don't quit. Just say 'Yeah, so what?' and move on with your life. At which point the mob moves on in search of easier prey.
Ben at May 7, 2021 3:04 PM
Not only never resign; never apologize to woketards. It only encourages them.
jdgalt1 at May 8, 2021 12:49 AM
Never apologize.
Point and laugh, and call them morons.
Ridicule is the best response to woketards.
Jay R at May 8, 2021 2:21 PM
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