"Cancel culture" has become a phrase that's almost meaningless, especially in the Shane Gillis SNL controversy

The Daily Beast

"Like many phrases and ideas in 2019, this one has been appropriated, bastardized, and misused to the point of not only betraying its original definition and its usefulness in checking the actual repercussions of reactionary censorship, but in fact has become almost meaningless," says Kevin Fallon of the ever-popular phrase "cancel culture." Fallon says Gillis’ jokes "were outwardly racist. They weren’t jokes about racism, or satire about race, or illuminating truths about the marginalized. They were racist jokes, and quite bland ones at that. People were pissed. Then people became pissed that people were pissed. Censorship! McCarthyism! Worst of all: Cancel culture!" Fallon adds: "Now, 'cancel culture' isn’t a diagnosis of a concerning trend that has become prevalent in recent years: Celebrity says something eyebrow-raising, ensure that the celebrity never works again! No, it’s morphed into an excuse used by those who wish to justify or endorse the very words and behaviors that are being flagged as offensive in the first place. You see, consequences are not 'cancel culture.' Just as entitlement is not a rationalization for offensive behavior." Gillis, says Fallon, "is a prime example of what is really happening, and how that reality is being skewered. No one, at least not the rational among the cultural critics, is denying Gillis’s right to make his jokes, no matter if they are racist and no matter if they are, above all of that, woefully lame. But just because Gillis has a right to make those jokes doesn’t mean he has a right to a bigger platform from which to make them. A job on Saturday Night Live is not owed to anybody. It is arguably one of the highest-profile gigs in comedy. Fans, audiences, and critics are right to expect some sort of responsibility or awareness, a certain standard, from those who are given that platform. They are right to be upset if it comes out that one of those benefactors has a history of espousing racist views. Gillis, in turn, had a right to respond to those who were angered. His response didn’t satisfy those critics, nor did it satisfy his employer. So he was fired. That is how jobs work."

ALSO:

• The Shane Gillis controversy showed how Asian stereotypes support the white status quo: Gillis himself said in 2016 while trying to do offensive comedy: “You can be racist to Asians. That’s what we’re finding out.” As Marie Myung-Ok Lee explains, "since Asians are not white, we also support the white status quo by providing an opportunity for white comics to use us as punching bags (and for punch lines) by deploying anti-Asian racism in the service of 'pushing boundaries' and 'taking risks' (as Gillis describes it). But Gillis and his ilk are the opposite of bold risk-takers; they are merely counting on another stereotype, that Asians are meek. We don’t like confrontation. We are stoic, quiet and try to conform at all costs."
• Social mores change, and so does humor: “'Chinese people talk funny!' is no longer daring comedy," says Alyssa Rosenberg. "Condemning racism is just common decency. And at the end of the day, we would do well to note that most of the so-called victims of cancel culture are, in fact, totally fine," says Alyssa Rosenberg, adding: "In fact, due to new publicity in a polarized climate, Gillis’s profile will likely be much higher than before. I, personally, cannot wait until he’s canceled into a Netflix comedy special. Dave Chappelle was never even canceled, but he’s made complaining about 'cancel culture' into the most profitable phase of his career."