Cancel culture is rooted in the ethics of white supremacy

The term "cancel culture" does not quite communicate how drastic the actual practice is. At its heart, it is the decision to overrule an idea or person by wiping them from the present, and "cancelling" their existence. They are not only boycotted, but ignored, shunned, and in many cases verbally abused. But this practice should be eerily familiar to those familiar with Western history. The ethical foundations of cancel culture come from white supremacy. Historians point to American slavery, and European colonialism as older forms of cancel culture, in which certain groups were stripped of any meaningful identity to subordinate and control them. Cancel culture uses similar methods. They not only reject a person's ideas or views, but then go on to negate their whole identity. The arena may now have shifted from farmlands to the internet, but this authoritarian style of power-grabbing remains unchanged. Cancel culture is an old power wielded in a new way. But it doesn't change how harmful the practice can be.