Parent Huddle: Accountability Amidst a Rising Tide of Cancel Culture

This week, our community at Hebron Academy focused on amplifying accountability amidst a rising tide of cancel culture We discussed:

• Examining the past through the lens of the present
• Evaluating the effectiveness of cancel culture

Time permitting and only to the extent you feel comfortable, consider continuing the conversation, and huddling about these topics as a family. Here are some questions you can pose to everyone in the family:

• 1: Dr. Seuss Enterprises recently decided to stop publishing six books that “portray people in ways that are hurtful or wrong.” A 2019 report published in the academic journal, Research on Diversity in Children’s Literature, examined over 2,000 human characters across 50 different Dr. Seuss books. The study found that 43 of the 45 characters of color perpetuated racial or ethnic stereotypes. Some say that removing Dr. Seuss’s books from stores, schools, and libraries is appropriate and brings awareness to overdue injustices. Others argue that removing them makes it harder to learn from the past. What do you think and why?
• 2: To what extent should people be held accountable for offensive things they have said or done in the past? When someone apologizes, how do you determine if it's genuine?
• 3: If you maintained a perspective on a topic that ran counter to popular opinion, how would you determine whether or not to voice it? If you were unsure about whether to speak up about something, what are three moves you could make to advise your decision?