Call-Out Calture

by Jessica Yu

If you’ve been active on social media recently, you’ve

probably witnessed or read about a celebrity getting “called out”,

meaning they have been publicly accused of saying or doing

something racist, sexist, ableist, or offensive. Following the call

out of an individual, many users on social media harass, insult,

and make judgements on that individual based off their one

offensive action. Even after the individual has made an apology,

oftentimes, the public has already shunned that person, and their

impression of them has been tainted forever.

Of course, letting celebrities, who are influential and have a

wide audience, know that their actions are offensive is important.

The purpose of calling someone out is to allow them to recognize

their mistakes, and learn from it. However, the reality of call out

culture is that everyone jumps on the bandwagon to hate on the

called out individual, making unnecessary and negative

comments. We were taught as children to “learn from your

mistakes”, but now we are too afraid to make mistakes in fear of

being shunned.

An alternative to calling out is “calling in”, where a private

conversation about an individual's actions takes place instead of a

public call out, which minimizes harassment. With celebrities this

is hard to do since reaching out to them is difficult, and usually

they only respond when criticism towards them becomes popular.

Instead of finding an alternative to calling out, we as a society

should work towards reducing the stigma of making mistakes,

and accept that people can change.

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