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Cancel culture addresses real harm…and sometimes causes more. Its time to think this through.

Cancel or call-out culture is a source of much tension and debate in American society. The infamous “HarpersLetter, signed by public intellectuals of both the left and right, sought to settle the matter and only caused greater division. Originating as a way for marginalized and disempowered people to address harm and take down powerful abusers, often with the help of social media,call outs areseen by some as having gone too far. But what is too far when youre talking about imbalances of power and patterns of harm? And what happens when people in social justice movements directtheir righteous anger inward at one another?

InWe Will Not Cancel Us, movement mediator adrienne maree brown reframes the discussion for us, in a way that points to possible paths beyondthis impasse. Most critiques of cancel culture come from outside the milieus that produce it, sometimes even from from its targets. However, brown explores the question from a Black, queer, and feminist viewpoint that gently asks, how well does this practice serve us? Does it prefigure the sort of world we want to live in? And, if it doesnt, how do we seek accountability and redress for harm in ways that reflect our values?

With an Afterword byMalkia Devich-Cyril.

adrienne maree brownis the author ofEmergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds;Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good; co-editor ofOctavias Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements; cohost ofHow to Survive the End of the WorldandOctavias Parables; and founder of the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute.

Malkia Devich-Cyrilis an award winning writer and public speaker on issues of digital rights, narrative power, Black liberation and collective grief; as well as a founder, former Executive Director, and current Senior Fellow at Media Justice, a national hub boldly advancing racial justice, rights and dignity in a digital age.

• We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice (Emergent Strategy) by adrienne maree brown
• Item Weight:3oz
• Paperback:88 pages
• Product Dimensions:4.5 x 0.01 x 6.5 inches
• ISBN-10:1849354227
• ISBN-13:9781849354226
• Publisher:AK Press (November 17, 2020)
• Language:English