Until now, I’d never thought that “Cancel Culture” could be considered a conspiracy theory.
I recently watched a lecture by Kansas State University professor and author, Philip Nel, who very briefly referred to Cancel Culture as a conspiracy theory. I was so intrigued by his lecture and his take on the recent news stories about Dr. Seuss Enterprises that I purchased his book, Was the Cat in the Hat Black?, and I look forward to better understanding racism in children’s literature, and how this ties into the potential conspiracy theory that is cancel culture.
Before the more recent examples of what I think cancel culture refers to, my best understanding of the term was acquired from reading a book called The Coddling of the American Mind. In the book, authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt detail several stories about universities where faculty or guest speakers were “canceled”--either called upon to resign or uninvited from guest appearances--after student-led protests. The canceled parties were usually accused by students of expressing ideas that were racist, sexist, or otherwise harmful, and were frequently verbally or even physically attacked until they either had to leave the campus or step down from their positions at the school. Lukianoff and Haidt use these stories to argue that such instances, and other supposedly new developments like safe spaces and trigger warnings, have a coddling effect on students that sets them up for failure after graduation. The book exemplifies one form of cancel culture but there appear to be other forms that we often hear about in the news, one of the most recent being Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ decision to stop publishing six of its titles.
But I wonder what Lukianoff and Haidt would have to say about cancel culture being called a conspiracy theory, especially within the context of Dr. Seuss’s books. I haven’t read enough of Philip Nel’s work to fully understand what he meant by his claim but for now I can provide my best guess. Nel mentioned in his lecture that Dr. Seuss Enterprises didn’t “cancel” anything; the company merely exercised its right to halt the distribution of a product deemed no longer appropriate, similar to any company that has ever recalled a product after realizing it was defective. He also asked us to consider whether culture can even really be canceled at all. In my opinion, the answer is no. When a piece of our culture gets “canceled” it usually ends up receiving more attention than it probably had in years, often deepening its foundation in our collective memories. This might tie into some arguments around censorship; many claim that censoring a book usually leads to the book becoming more sought-after and ultimately more deeply rooted in history and culture.
I don’t think the situation will be much different for the six Dr. Seuss books that were pulled from publication. As Nel asserted in his lecture, the books aren’t going anywhere. The professor himself has copies of the books in his house and nobody is breaking down his door to confiscate them. Nobody is forcing libraries or bookstores to remove the books from their shelves (as far as I know); employees can make that decision on their own. In my personal experience working for a large public library, the decision was made to temporarily remove the books from circulation while a committee discusses what steps to take for the future. What will most likely happen is that the books will no longer be held in children's departments, but will be moved to a children's book research department where adults can view or borrow the books as they would any other research material. While I think this is a good move, it’s important to note that many smaller libraries with less funding and physical space won’t have such an option, and will likely be forced to make difficult decisions about whether to keep or remove the books from their collections. But removal from one collection often means transfer to another, so in my mind the idea of canceling something--essentially erasing a piece of culture from history--doesn’t exist except in the minds of those who feel threatened when something they love is suddenly criticized. In the case of Dr. Seuss, the books are far from being erased; they are simply being recontextualized.
Most importantly the Dr. Seuss debacle teaches us to reflect on our pasts and really think about how we want future generations to view us. Philip Nel posits that culture and social ideologies are deeply embedded in books and other media, then easily absorbed by young minds in ways that are sneaky and resilient. In his lectures and book, he calls upon years of research to encourage discussions about how race has been portrayed (or ignored) in children’s literature, and how these portrayals persist in our adult minds without our knowledge or understanding. With all this considered, does culture ever really get canceled? I doubt I will find a solid answer but I'm excited to learn more about this topic.
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