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Longtime activist and academic Loretta J. Ross is on a mission to 鈥渂uild a culture that invites people in, instead of pushing them out.鈥� As she explains in a  she gave earlier this year, she does this by teaching a course she鈥檚 named, 鈥�.鈥�

Ross has a long history of social justice activism that includes fighting against the Ku Klux Klan in the 1990s, co-founding the reproductive justice group , writing three books on reproductive rights, and most recently, teaching at  as a visiting associate professor. 

In a 2019  titled, 鈥淚鈥檓 a Black Feminist. I Think Call-Out Culture Is Toxic,鈥� Ross began by admitting, 鈥淭oday鈥檚 call-out culture is so seductive, I often have to resist the overwhelming temptation to clap back at people on social media who get on my nerves.鈥� 

Ross鈥檚 op-ed was published in the midst of a raging  over the manner in which public figures are held accountable鈥攗sually via social media鈥攆or offensive comments or positions. Conservatives in particular  that 鈥渃ancel culture鈥� is antithetical to free speech. 

The current conservative fixation on cancel culture is part of an ongoing decades-long right-wing push back against 鈥減olitical correctness.鈥�

The notion that cancel culture is dangerous has gained so much traction in mainstream discourse that the Wall Street Journal鈥檚 Peggy Noonan denounced it as 鈥�.鈥� British actor John Cleese recently announced a documentary series called 鈥�,鈥� based on interviews with people who have been 鈥渃anceled.鈥� And a new Netflix series starring Sandra Oh called , examines the pitfalls of a student-led cancellation of a White professor who casually used a Nazi salute in a classroom to illustrate fascism. 

The current conservative fixation on cancel culture is part of an ongoing decades-long right-wing push back against 鈥�.鈥� During his presidential campaign,  that 鈥渢he big problem this country has is being politically correct.鈥� Trump鈥檚 followers have gone on to rail against political correctness and cancel culture as an assertion of their right to free speech. 

Pew Research Center鈥檚  on the issue of cancel culture highlights a partisan split on the issue with conservatives tending to see it as punishment and liberals generally viewing it as a means of accountability. 鈥淐alling out,鈥� or cancel culture, has been around for millennia. 鈥淭he original cancellation was Alexander Hamilton getting killed in a duel,鈥� Ross said in an interview about her course. 

We can鈥檛 go around punishing people in the present for the trauma that was inflicted on us in the past.

She asserts, 鈥淭he right cynically uses the concept of being canceled in a very hypocritical way, because they鈥檙e the originators of the cancel culture.鈥� But, according to Ross, 鈥渢he problem that they have with it now is that the people who were formerly powerless can punch back.鈥澛�

Ross sees power dynamics between the perpetrators and targets of cancel culture as a crucial part of the equation. Those power dynamics determine whether or not targeting people for offensive behavior or language amounts to a just take-down or dangerous mob mentality. Stand-up comedians like , , and , who have been unafraid to engage in mockery, have known the difference between 鈥減unching up鈥� toward power, versus 鈥減unching down鈥� against the powerless.

Unlike the conservative argument against cancel culture that see any infringement of the right to offend as an attack on free speech, Ross is more concerned about the tendency among some on the left to alienate one another rather than work together for justice. She worries that 鈥渃ancel culture is toxic when the left overuses it and chooses it as the tool of first resort.鈥� 

She also worries about the related practice of using 鈥溾�� to alert people about material that might be traumatizing. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 tell people what their traumas and triggers are, as I don鈥檛 have their lived experiences,鈥� says Ross, who is a survivor of rape and incest. She adds, 鈥渨e can鈥檛 go around punishing people in the present for the trauma that was inflicted on us in the past.鈥� 

The practice of calling out people within social justice movements predates contemporary social media-based public shaming. In White-dominated spaces in particular, people of color have often called out their ostensible allies for actions or words that feel dehumanizing. Sometimes this can lead to  between people who have a common goal. 鈥淚n our pursuit of political purity, we鈥檙e alienating a lot of our allies, and we鈥檙e criticizing them for not being 鈥榳oke鈥� enough,鈥� says Ross.

To help teach her course, Ross recruited movement organizer , who became known for writing , which went viral in 2013. Tran鈥檚 article ignited a critical conversation about handling internal conflict within social justice spaces. 

You lead with love instead of anger.

Rather than calling out people for their offenses, Ross says, 鈥淚 prefer 鈥榗alling in鈥� which is achieving accountability with grace, love, and respect as opposed to anger, shame, and humiliation.鈥� She maintains that, 鈥渢he human rights movement is not a public therapy space. Its job is to end oppression.鈥� Indeed, organizations and institutions are now  on internal accountability using calling in techniques. 

Ross also teaches a six-week online course that mirrors the college-level course she teaches at Smith College but 鈥攑art of an effort to make it as widely accessible as possible. Her goal, as per the class description, is 鈥渂uilding solidarity to take on White supremacy across different experiences in race, class, and gender.鈥� 

Any friction within social justice movements鈥攚hether for women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ communities, or immigrants鈥攕tands in the way of a unified response to the myriad injustices we face. Ross sees the creation of a calling in culture as critical to the work of building an effective human rights movement, 鈥渟o that we don鈥檛 do work against racism in a homophobic way,鈥� for example.

In addition to delving into ancient philosophies of conflict resolution such as   and , Ross鈥� course explores the idea of 鈥溾�� on college campuses, which were first envisioned by two scholars at Hampshire College. Christopher M. Tinson, associate professor of Africana Studies and History, and Javiera Benavente, program director of the Ethics and the Common Good Project,  wrote an article explaining DSEs as 鈥渟ites of justice-seeking conversation and discourse,鈥� which they hope 鈥渃ould be instrumental in shaping healthy, and vital, rather than toxic and indifferent, campus climates.鈥� 

The course gives students the chance to practice the skills they learn in what Ross calls 鈥淐alling In Learning Labs.鈥� So far, the six-week course has been so successful that it鈥檚 in its sixth session within just one year. 

Ross also offers specific techniques for calling in allies. As an illustration of how people who have a common goal of social justice can talk to one another when someone makes an offensive statement, Ross suggests asking questions like, 鈥淐an we practice when we鈥檙e together, you not saying those kinds of things?鈥� 

In using such an approach she says, 鈥測ou lead with love instead of anger.鈥�