Mistakes: Not Always an Opportunity to Learn
“Mistakes are at the very base of human thought, embedded there, feeding the structure like root nodules. If we were not provided with the knack of being wrong, we could never get anything useful done.” —Lewis Thomas
Lewis Thomas’ assertion that making mistakes are a fundamental part of being human is not an unheard notion to me. Ever since preschool arithmatic class, I’ve heard over and over that making mistakes is the best way to improve. In fact, as a biologist, Thomas likely has an intimate understanding of the genetic mistakes and subsequent adjustments that constitute evolution, the very foundation of human life. But today, “making mistakes” has been rephrased for far more sinister reasons: to both protect the privileged while conversely tearing down minorities. Ultimately, making mistakes has never been an opportunity for growth for anyone but the most privileged.
For too long, we have allowed objectively bad people to garner the public’s sympathy. Serial killers like Bundy or Gacy have fanclubs, with hundreds vying to marry them and sympathetic reporters theorizing about what might have gone wrong in their childhood. In class, I’ve even been told to be nice to other students or I would have deserved to be shot in a school shooting. All in all, I feel we are far too free with our absolution. And yet, there exists many a successful op-ed about how “cancel culture” has destroyed society. In a sense, these claims have some grounds. The idea of “cancelling” someone over a mistake presents a very binary view of morality; a person is seen as either always good or always bad, with no room for growth. But cancel culture doesn’t exist as simply a theorization, nor does it exist in a vacuum. The unity of marginalized groups to directly call out problematic behavior has been a revolutionary way for minorities to reclaim their voice and directly affect change in the most privileged of spaces. Movements like #MeToo have created novel waves in an industry where men like Harvey Weinstein commit assault unchecked for decades. So where is the distinction between cancellation and accountability?
The answer is simple: privilege. Historically, the very act of being born a minority has counted as a societal strike: a mistake in itself. Thus, the latitude for one such person to make and recover from another mistake has always been infinitesimal. One example of this is Janet Jackson, whose music career was largely derailed after her Super Bowl performance, where her breasts were accidentally exposed. Though it was her white male co-performer Justin Timberlake who pulled down her costume to expose her in the first place, it was Jackson who faced the brunt of the blame, being blacklisted from events and shows and being called a “bad role model.” Timberlake, on the other hand, recovered and even seemed to prosper from the event, going on to become a massive solo star. This same trend of misogynoir continues in the modern music industry with rappers like Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B, both of whom have been widely criticized for their supposedly vulgar lyrics, with critics analyzing everything about them from their relationships to their clothing choices. Ultimately, this overcritical lens is never applied in the same way to white performers, with singers like Ariana Grande who tout equally (if not more) sexual lyricism building careers off of the very musical concepts that earn Black women backlash. Even when we return to the original example of serial killers, it’s only the white men who become exonerated in the eyes of the public. Though the majority of terrorist activity is committed by white offenders, it is acts by people of color that create the most public vitriol. On September 11th, 2001, many decided that an entire religion was at fault for the actions of a small group of terrorists. On the other hand, not every Christian is seen as responsible for the actions of the Ku Klux Klan. We treat marginalized groups in a completely separate way than we do those of privilege; even the very words we use are changed. Court cases call people of color “thugs,” while calling white convicts “misunderstood” or “cunning.”
In the end, it’s not commiting a mistake in itself that is wrong; it is the way we treat mistakes on different people. If we as a society want to venerate mistakes as healthy learning opportunities, we must first treat all those who make mistakes as equal.
