Trending 27th May 2019 by Megan Roantree

Jameela Jamil Has Opened Up About Why She Doesn’t Agree With Cancel Culture

"It isn’t going to get us anywhere."

 

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Outspoken actress Jameela Jamil has revealed that she does not agree with cancel culture after she was criticised for being on a podcast with Russell Brand.

For anyone who’s not sure, cancel culture is essentially to boycott someone, usually well-known, for saying or doing something that people don’t deem acceptable.

The Good Place actress spoke on Russell’s Under The Skin podcast about her mental health journey, but some criticised her for working with the comedian because of his recent problematic and sexist comments. In an interview, he said that his wife Laura Gallacher doesn’t leave him alone with their two children for more than a day at a time because he’s ‘not so good’ with parental duties. Which is obviously unacceptable in 2019, and not at all how parenting works.

Jameela defended her decision to work with him and also made an interesting point about cancel culture.

“Some of you are very angry I have appeared on his podcast, but I did it because I’ve witnessed a tremendous change in him. I’ve watched him publicly own up to all of his mistakes, explain his mental illness, explain his behavior to others, and use all of his mistakes as an example to help others avoid making those same mistakes. People with very big platforms normally just hide from their wrongs, but he’s running right at them and doing whatever he can to educate himself and other people about serious things that we all need to learn about,” she said.

 

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She explained that people should have room to grow and learn from their mistakes, and that by cancelling people, they will never change.

“I believe in progress and not perfection, and I believe in the human potential for change and education, and I watch this person tirelessly try to make right what he has gotten wrong. If we cancel people forever, when they have demonstrated immense change and remorse, we devalue progress. it isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

She pointed out: “Too many people are ignorant and problematic, for us to have the luxury of writing them ALL off. We need to teach and to crack a window to allow in fresh air to clean up this world. People who make no change and no effort can absolutely fuck off forever, but those who can do a lot to help others, using their old mistakes as a teaching tool to create change, are of great value in my humble opinion.”

She finished by saying: “I’m open to your thoughts on this and am sorry if any of you feel triggered by my decision.”

Of course, it can be argued that certain acts or behaviours are unacceptable and shouldn’t be tolerated, but perhaps it’s time to look at 10-year-old tweets or stupid passive comments as an opportunity to point out ignorance and encourage change.

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