Human Cancelling- Karen Templer
Posted On March 3, 2021
Say Whaaa?
An example of toxic cancel culture having innocent casualties is that of Karen Templer. Karen was a blogger and a member in a knitting group on Instagram. She wrote a blog about excitement about her upcoming trip to India. She wrote that it was “like being offered a seat on a flight to Mars.” She also said, “If I can go to India, I can do anything — I’m pretty sure.”
Immediately there was backlash and uproar from the people in the knitting community on Instagram, stating that she was a racist for using “othering” language that suggested the people of India were “like aliens” and should be “feared”. No one was defending her and she was harassed endlessly.
Templer ended up writing an apology saying, “I have hurt, angered and disappointed a lot of people this week,” and “I perpetuated the harmful notion that Indians (and POC in general) are ‘other,’ or even to be feared. People who are the target of racism every day were rightly offended by it, as were others. And I am so sorry.”
Templer’s original post was said to contain “micro-aggression”. If you’re not familiar, it is defined by Wiktionary to mean, “Any interaction between those of different races, cultures, or genders that can be interpreted as non-physical aggression.”
Reading Vox’s description, they state their offense to all the white people that talk about India as being “inspiring, colorful, and complex.” Um…what?
A commenter named Alex responded to Karen saying, ““Karen, I’d ask you to re-read what you wrote and think about how your words feed into a colonial/imperialist mindset toward India and other non-Western countries.” Alex further stated that Templer had, multiple times, compared going to India to going into outer space, and demanded to know how she thought people from India might feel about that.
Personally, I suspect they wouldn’t care. Going into any different country can feel like going into outer space, simply because it’s a very different culture, language, scenery, etc. Commenters stating that she was a racist by stating that exact point, were outrageously off base.
Here were some of the responses:
“You’re sorry people are offended? That’s not an apology for your deeply racist and reductive statement. Please rethink this trip. Don’t force the people of India to deal with you and your colonializing mindset.”
“Instead of asking your Indian friends to perform more emotional labor for you and assuage your white women’s tears, maybe do some reflection on how your equation of India with an alien world reinforces an “other” mindset that is at the core of imperialism and colonialism.”
Notes that hated on Templer for her “peak whiteness,” and notes reminding her that “the world doesn’t owe you a patient explanation and education”, when she asked for the mob to calm down and explain to her what was wrong with what she had said. They called Templer names like “coloniser” and told her she needed to “stay in [her] lane.”
Then the mob turned on others as well. They stated that anyone that didn’t speak up and attack Templer, as well, were racists as well that “add to the problem”.
“I RULE YOU THROUGH FEAR & INTIMIDATION”
The controversy didn’t stop there: Apparently, knitting and knitting communities, in general, have been condemned as racist since before this controversy came to light. They were referred to as “white-washed” communities. I’ve no idea if that’s true or not.
What I can tell you is that Templer spoke of being able to reach one of her dreams by going to India as it was one of her dreams to go. She spoke of what a beautiful and unique and wonderful country she thought it was. She said nothing mean, hateful, or otherwise harmful. She was attacked, brutally for her LOVE of another country.
Did Karen Templer deserve the hatred and harassment she was given?
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