Ever since Oprah Winfrey picked American Dirt for Oprah’s Book Club on Apple TV+, both Winfrey and the book’s author, Jeanine Cummins, have been faced with calls for them to be canceled.
Those who are heading the calls for them to be canceled claim that the novel, which is about a Mexican mother and her son fleeing from the kingpin of a Mexican drug cartel, promotes racist stereotypes.
These calls to cancel Cummins have resulted in her American Dirt book tour being called off after threats of violence led to safety concerns.
And those calling for Oprah to be canceled, have pressured her to rescind her recommendation of the book and cancel her show about American Dirt.
But Oprah has refused to give in to cancel culture and said if she did drop her recommendation of the book, it would be “because of pressure and not because I felt something was wrong”.
In her show on American Dirt, Oprah further discussed the dangers of cancel culture and said:
“If one author, one artist is silenced, we’re all in danger of the same. I believe that we can do this without having to cancel, to dismiss, or to silence anyone.”
Oprah is the latest of several public figures to speak on the dangers of cancel culture in recent months.
YouTuber True Geordie said he had suicidal thoughts after an online mob tried to end his career.
And 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard warned that cancel culture will be harmful in the long run because it creates a “culture of fear.”
