There’s been a lot of talk recently about the phenomenon of canceling someone when they are found to make statements or take actions that are outside the norms of society. It has become one of those generational buzzwords that has also become an accusation or a weapon. It’s like “war on Christmas” or “liberal” where it’s really just a phrase, but it’s meant to take on some deeper meaning depending on the context it’s used in.
Will Smith seems to be the latest to succumb to the traditional definition of cancel culture. Ever since he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars ceremony, he has been taken off of projects and has seen nothing but negative news about him. Now, if you or I popped someone at our company Christmas party, I think it would be logical that we might lose a shift or two at the Kentucky Fried Chicken. But, instead, we call it “cancel culture” to make it sound fancy.
Well, let me tell you about the real cancel culture out there. Imagine heading out to your son’s basketball game at the YMCA Saturday morning, or your daughter’s volleyball tournament and being turned away. “Sorry. We don’t have enough officials to work the event. Today’s game is canceled.” It has already happened in big tournaments in Indiana and Florida. Fewer and fewer officials combined with more and more youth and amateur sports events mean that there just aren’t enough to go around.
The reasons for this are clear – it’s too much of a hassle to officiate a youth sports event. You heard about the slap at the Oscars, but maybe you didn’t hear about the punch thrown at Kristi Moore in Mississippi a couple of weeks ago. It happened during a girls’ softball game when Kristi was filling in to umpire the game. She had been umpiring less and less, but helped to fill in when another umpire was ill. She made a call and a coach punched her and broke her eye socket.
The physical altercations are, thankfully, the exception, but what has become all too regular is the verbal abuse that officials take from fans and coaches. When you’re making a few bucks per game, it’s simply not worth it and enough is enough. Call it “reverse” cancel culture, but we are now finding an emergency with a generation of officials retiring or (in my case) breaking down, getting new knees, etc. And there isn’t another generation to take up the work.
You see it at fast food restaurants and retail stores as well. When you’re making pennies, someone dressing you down that you’re not getting the key to the changing room fast enough simply isn’t worth the abuse. Fast food restaurants are closing their lobbies. Stores are changing their hours. Youth games are being canceled.
The solution seems so simple, and yet, indicates just how far we have to go as a society — be nice to each other. Sit on Facebook for more than three minutes and you can immediately see that people are conditioned to blurting out the most vile, negative thought that pops in their brains, and, in many cases, that is translating into interactions with officials and employees at stores.
And guess what? Those folks are walking away. In order to change cancel culture, we’re going to need to focus more on the culture part than the cancel part.
(Never cancel Chris Kamler on Twitter, where you can find him getting funky as @TheFakeNed)