Mimi Groves, a student in Virginia, got kicked out of college because of an old Snapchat video of her saying a racial slur. The ex-classmate who ‘exposed’ her prides himself on this memorable accomplishment.
If you were to ask me before Christmas if I knew who Mimi Groves was, I would probably have asked you if she was a character in a movie. The young Miss Groves has made national headlines here in the United States because someone used a recorded video of her saying a racial slur as a 15-year-old kid to get her kicked out of college. A situation made possible by rampant cancel culture, it’s emblematic of a larger sickness in our society.
The three-second tape of Mimi Groves saying “I can drive, n*****s,” filmed in 2016, was sent over Snapchat to a friend privately, and then it was saved by a young man named Jimmy Galligan. It was secondhand information that he otherwise would have never seen or known about.
When asked about the situation, Galligan was unabashedly proud of ruining her life over a mistake that happened years ago, saying:
“I’m going to remind myself, you started something. You taught someone a lesson.”
Jimmy is teaching a lesson all right, but not the one that he's thinking.
The lesson he is teaching is that it is completely okay in modern-day society to co-opt a good cause – the fight against racism, in this case – to signal your own fake virtue, get famous at someone else’s expense or enact petty revenge – or all of the above.
Never once does Jimmy or anyone who agrees with him wholeheartedly consider the fact that this is emblematic of a larger problem: as a society, we are becoming okay with revenge.
Ask yourself – how many people will be turned from racist thoughts by an 18-year-old flaunting the possible destruction of a former classmate’s life prospects over a stupid childhood boast? ‘Zero’ would be my answer.
Many more will learn to fear and loathe the cancel culture he represents. If there is any higher justice, the backlash against it will secure the young woman Galligan tried to ruin a place in higher education.
Ten years from now, both individuals are going to look like dumb brats. Mimi will look stupid for casually throwing around racist terminology, and Jimmy will look stupid for being so petty as to try to destroy someone over it. Meanwhile, the rest of our society is left holding the bag.
The heart of cancel culture is centered around revenge, envy, and righteous indignation. Is a common tool of someone who enjoys virtue signaling as opposed to actually acting virtuous. There's nothing virtuous in what Jimmy did because revenge is not a virtue. People like him have bred a faux moral monstrosity ready to pounce at a single trigger word. Even though what Mimi did was repulsive, it was years ago – something she says she regrets. Even when the 2016 video was brought to her attention, it was in response to her calling on friends to support Black Lives Matter.
So what's the point in destroying her entire future over it?
The answer is that there is no point. These types of maneuvers are seen far too often and only serve the purpose to destroy. Cancel culture by its nature cannot create anything, and thus only exists to ruin. It takes people standing up in uncomfortable situations to start bucking the trend and showing people that it's not okay to do this. But cancel culture is all about intimidation – and fewer and fewer people are willing to risk sticking their head up. Thus, we will likely see more kids like Jimmy and Mimi forget the idea of forgiveness, and practice revenge.
Ultimately, our society is going to have to make a decision. Do we allow this to continue? Are we okay with living in constant fear, trying to gauge every last word we have ever said – even as children! – for possible incriminating material that could be used by the likes of Jimmy Galligan? Do we want more lives to be destroyed like this? Do we want our children to become Jimmy Galligans, obsessed with revenge against people that they don't have to interact with? Society needs to start answering these questions or people are going to have to be a saint just to get ahead in life. And a very specific kind of saint – one approved by the Church of Cancel Culture.
