Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution

by Elie Mystal

Cancel culture, as defined by conservative thinkers and hot take aficionados, involves a person (usually a famous media person or college professor) losing a job, an endorsement, or some opportunity because of something they’ve said. Complaints about cancel culture are inextricably tied to complaints about “political correctness.” The people who think you should be able to spew racist, sexist, or homophobic slurs against others are the very same people who think that losing acting gigs or magazine columns because of their knuckle-dragging views is the greatest First Amendment issue of our time. The thing is, a publisher firing a media person for something they say involves no First Amendment issue at all. There’s no constitutional right to, say, continued employment after supporting a failed insurrection. Free speech does not protect a Fox News employee’s right to a job any more than it protects a 7-Eleven employee who desperately needs to wear a racist hat while serving Slurpees. Free speech also does not confer a constitutional right to tenure upon professors who feel the need to say the n-word in class. These people can say whatever they want, but the Constitution does not protect their right to employment. Constitutional protections of speech are mainly concerned with the government’s attempts to silence or punish views the ruling party doesn’t like. The Constitution cares about people limiting the inquiry of a free press through lawsuits or the threat of lawsuits. It ...