Cancel Culture and the Impact on Restorative Approaches in BIPOC Communities

Students often do not know how to respond in the face of difficult situations, and resorting to cancel culture allows for an immediate end to bad behaviors through online public shaming. However, while cancel culture is often supported as a useful tool to end offensive or harmful behaviors, it also can be destructive when it comes to facilitating restorative approaches and creating a culture of transformative change. The rise of cancel culture can be especially problematic among BIPOC communities faced with collective trauma rooted in horrific histories, punitive systems of punishment, and the social context of inequality. This chapter provides an overview of cancel culture, systemic and structural issues that have led to collective harm, and the impact of cancel culture on creating restorative and transformative change within BIPOC communities.