“Stay Woke” (2021-2022)

Aside from eight-plus hours worth of editing, the biggest struggle in making my video was dealing with the fear that everyone would cancel me for my opinions on cancel culture. I was really worried about phrasing something wrong or making it seem like I was picking sides. The last thing I wanted was to create pro- or anti-cancel culture propaganda. Instead, I sought out the line at which cancelling someone either works (if it works at all) or goes too far. To do that, I spent a lot of time using the turning points in my essay to raise new questions about the structure and function of cancel culture. Frankly, I needed more than ten minutes to fully flesh out every turning point, but I did my best to be concise. 

It was also hard to find fictional work in which artists talk specifically about cancel culture because it’s such a new controversy. I tried to find work that got as close as possible to talking about cancel culture or the act of cancelling someone, then I did my best to find ways in which all those works connected. What story were the writers all telling about the cancelled figure? Once I noticed that most of the “cancelled” figures in these works were painted as the victims, I ran with that. I wanted to see the extent of how true or false that depiction was. 

Ultimately, the challenge of this essay was figuring out how to phrase all of my new ideas concisely. By the time I finished my final draft, I felt as though I had no answers to anything! But, as I was writing my conclusion, I realized that leaving these questions to the audience opened up room for necessary conversation and I figured that was more useful than any fixed stance I could’ve given.

Samantha Whitley (Tisch ’24) grew up on Long Island, NY, and studies dramatic writing at the Tisch School of the Arts. When she’s not writing scripts for class or producing podcast episodes for NYU’s Fusion Film Festival, she’s on YouTube watching video essays, film reviews, or anything animation-related. Her essay not only provides an outlet for her to “geek out” about standup specials and her favorite TV shows but also to voice her concerns about the growing presence of cancel culture.