Ideas worth spreading

Let's reframe cancel culture

557,746 views |

Sarah Jones |

TED2023

• April 2023

Cancel culture launched a reckoning that was long overdue — but that doesn't mean it's getting everything right. Filmmaker and actor Sarah Jones slips in and out of various characters as she shares her personal experience with cancel culture and suggests a better way to hold others — and ourselves — to account.

Cancel culture launched a reckoning that was long overdue — but that doesn't mean it's getting everything right. Filmmaker and actor Sarah Jones slips in and out of various characters as she shares her personal experience with cancel culture and suggests a better way to hold others — and ourselves — to account.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Watch Sell/Buy/Date to better understand the controversy mentioned in the talk.

Donate to Grantmakers for Girls of Color to help provide resources for girls, femmes and gender-expansive youth like those interviewed in Sell/Buy/Date.

About the speaker

Sarah Jones

Polymorphic filmmaker

See speaker profile

Tony Award-winning performer, writer, director and producer Sarah Jones is best known for the chameleon-like ease with which she slips in and out of characters.

Chris Harman | Verso, 2017 | Book

The People’s History of the World

An in-depth chronicle of world history from the earliest humans through the 20th century that expands our understanding of class and capitalism through the ages.

Maree Brown | AK Press, 2020 | Book

We Will Not Cancel Us

Brown offers an exploration of cancel culture from a POV that questions whether the practice actually serves or harms pre-cancelled communities.

Dan Harris | TED Talks, 2022 | Watch

"The benefits of not being a jerk to yourself"

Harris’ loving-kindness meditation method arms us with the strength, resiliency and humility to engage in challenging conversations before resorting to cancellation.

Darren Walker | Disruption Books, 2023 | Book

From Generosity to Justice: A New Gospel of Wealth

An essential guide for modern philanthropists on how to pave the way for more economic, social and political equity.

Ava DuVernay | Netflix, 2016 | Watch

13TH documentary

This eye-opening exploration of the relationship between slavery in the US and modern mass incarceration exposes ongoing systems that disproportionately “cancel” Black and brown communities.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Watch Sell/Buy/Date to better understand the controversy mentioned in the talk.

Donate to Grantmakers for Girls of Color to help provide resources for girls, femmes and gender-expansive youth like those interviewed in Sell/Buy/Date.