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Last week the American Conservative Union (ACU) hosted their annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) under the theme “America Uncanceled” – a name that became somewhat ironic when CPAC canceled one of its speakers just before the conference started. The scandal was sparked by a Media Matters expose on a panelist named “Young Pharaoh” that revealed a slew of grossly anti-Semitic tweets. Within two hours, all traces of Young Pharaoh had disappeared from the event website. CPAC announced a speaker had been removed for “reprehensible views.” Young Pharaoh’s social media included claims that Judaism is a “lie” invented for political reasons, referred to Jewish people as “thieving”, and insisted “all the censorship & pedophilia on social media is being done by Israeli Jews.” After being disinvited, Young Pharaoh doubled down on his anti-Semitic comments and made a video claiming that the ACU reached out to him first and accused the organization of inviting him to have more minority faces in their program. If Young Pharaoh’s allegation is true, it would mark yet another example of how some civic groups overlook one type of bigotry while trying to address another – with anti-Semitism in particular given a pass in the cause of promoting other types of “diversity.” It is unclear how ACU missed the many red flags in Young Pharaoh’s tweets and videos, which often contain conspiratorial content. The larger issue raised by Young Pharaoh’s unceremonious exodus from CPAC is the seeming tension between opposing “cancel culture” and standing up to bigotry. “Cancel culture” is the extreme over-reaction by increasingly woke civic institutions and leaders that seize on a real or perceived grievance to destroy someone’s career. Refusing to give an optional platform to an unabashed anti-Semite, by contrast, is in no way an overreaction. Cancel culture is a problem, but so is overlooking blatant bigotry like Young Pharaoh’s. Opposing cancel culture and having standards are not mutually exclusive. Even those who believe themselves above “woke” traps can sometimes still fall into them.

In late January, Americans saw one of the most jarring cases of cancel culture yet when literary agent Colleen Oefelein was fired just for joining social media sites Parler and Gab. NTC launched a campaign to stand up for her, and over 3,000 of you have taken action. We caught up with her to get the full story of what happened, how she’s doing now, and what message she wants to share with you.  What Happened? Colleen’s Story  Colleen started working at the Jennifer de Chiara Literary Agency in February of 2018. “I always felt welcome,” she explained. “Sometimes the others would start to talk politics, but I always stayed quiet during those conversations.”  De Chiara encouraged her literary agents to use social media to find new authors, so when Colleen heard that a number of authors had joined Parler, she joined too. Colleen says she posted the same things to Parler that she posted on Twitter – primarily writing tips and animal memes. Her most controversial posts focused on the correct use of apostrophes.   When Parler shut down, she followed some authors to Gab, where she continued to stick with publishing-related content. Out of the blue, she received an email from De Chiara saying that she was fired just for joining those platforms.  “Perplexing” is the word Colleen used several times to describe her firing. She wasn’t engaging in controversial topics. She was just using social media to do her job.  How Is She Doing Now?  When asked how she’s doing now, Collen said “I have a really good support system. I’m mostly worried about my authors I represent and making sure I’m taking good care of them, making sure they don’t suffer any consequences they don’t deserve.” She has had other job offers and is optimistic about the future as she weighs her options.   Toxic YA Hate  Colleen is no stranger to cancel culture and weaponized tolerance. She explained that social media is full of what one of her writers calls “toxic YA hate,” referring to the swift and merciless condemnation writers of young adult fiction experience if they run afoul of the self-appointed inclusion gatekeepers.  Collen says that many of her authors are afraid to publicly express their faith or their political views. “They’re just dead scared that someone is going to find out and blacklist them, and their dreams of being a published author will just go ‘poof.’”  Colleen kept her social media posts limited to avoid this very trap, but it found her anyway.  Her Message to You  “A big thanks and a big debt of gratitude for all of the support. It really it is uplifting.”   She continued, “I hope that I can get the word out about the climate of the American publishing industry. And exposing some of these hypocritical things. Maybe somebody else won’t see their dreams evaporate because somebody gets offended for a stupid reason.”  Moving Forward  Colleen saw firsthand how people are terrified of standing up for their beliefs, whether that be supporting people in situations like hers or just sharing an opinion about current events. That needs to change. It’s time to be bold and find healthy ways to fight back to stop more stories like Colleen’s from happening.  If you haven’t already, please sign the petition!  And if you want to support Colleen in a more literary fashion, check out her paranormal romance novel Eerie.  

This week started with MLK Day, when the internet overflows with wonderful quotes from Dr. King about justice, equality, activism, and character. These quotes provide a stark contrast to what we’ve witnessed in our nation over the last year, and especially the last two weeks.  We are nowhere near achieving MLK’s dream. While some things have improved dramatically for our nation, other problems have just changed shape, and new technology has ushered in brand new ways for us to discriminate, bully, and divide. It is a new year, and starting today, we have a new president, but neither of those things will make this nation’s underlying problems go away.  As we move into this next chapter of our nation’s history, the New Tolerance Campaign has pledged to keep a close eye on three big issues: Big Tech Censorship This problem has been simmering for years as social media and search engines try to walk the line between promoting free expression and stopping things like bullying, bigotry, and promotion of violence. No doubt it’s a tough job, but almost all of the major tech companies have systematically failed at anything resembling fair enforcement of clear policies. This has never been more apparent than this past couple of weeks when Trump and many of his supporters were banned from many platforms while other accounts that routinely promote violence and even gross human rights abuses remain untouched. We recognize that these tech companies are private entities that are not bound by the First Amendment, but they have immense power to control the public’s access to information, and it is our duty as citizens to demand that they set fair, transparent rules and abide by them. The American Response to Uyghur Oppression in China American companies like Apple, Nike, the NBA, and Disney love to tell us how much they care about social justice with flashy ads and not-so-subtle messaging. But they only hop on bandwagons that are already popular and don’t cost them anything. Meanwhile, they are completely silent on the extreme human rights abuses happening in China, even while they take advantage of its lucrative consumer market and cheap labor. American government officials have been stepping up in some ways. In the last month alone, outgoing Sec. of State Mike Pompeo boldly accused China of ‘genocide,’ and the Biden campaign returned a donation from a lobbyist with Chinese ties.  This is progress, but it’s not enough. As influencers of social norms, major American companies must act responsibly, which at the very least means acting consistently. They should stop the use of hypocritical slogans and marketing campaigns that encourage poisonous phony tolerance. Anti-Semitism  While the fight against racism makes headlines every day, there has been a baffling amount of anti-Semitism that doesn’t seem to concern mainstream media, advocacy groups, civic leaders, and many public figures. If we mean it when we say as a country that we must end racism in America, that means fighting anti-Semitism just as earnestly as other forms of racism. Yet, some racial justice fighters have been allowed to spout anti-Semitism in the course of condemning other forms of racism. This must end. We have a biased tolerance problem in this country. A phony tolerance problem. We have forgotten how to address our problems in healthy ways. Acts of violence, shouting matches, canceling, and deplatforming – digital or in-person – make our problems worse. Let’s work together to call out biased tolerance in healthy ways so that understanding, compromise, and respect can prevail. If you haven’t checked out our campaigns page in a while, please do. Sign the petitions and send the messages that matter to you, and together we can make a real difference.