I’m sure many people have heard of “problematic” celebrities like Kanye West, Azealia Banks, or Pete Davidson. They are just a few examples of public figures who have been dubbed “crazy” or “cancelled” on social media. If someone is cancelled, they are symbolically dismissed and are no longer worthy of support, according to Urban Dictionary. Celebrities can be cancelled for a number of reasons ranging from allegations of abuse to offensive things said in their past.

Kanye West is one of the many celebrities known for what many people perceive as offensive behavior and ignorant viewpoints. He has been most notably criticized for his blatant support of Donald Trump on Twitter, the infamous moment when he interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs (“I’m gonna let you finish but…”), using Confederate flags on his merchandise, and most recently tweeting that slavery was a choice. Another example of a celebrity thought to be offensive and ignorant is Azealia Banks. She has come under fire for tweeting racist and homophobic remarks at Zayn Malik, insulting then fourteen-year-old Disney star Skai Jackson, criticizing Beyonce, making offensive jokes about Sarah Palin, and insulting Lana del Rey's appearance. She, like Kanye West, has been linked to a number of controversies that some have speculated may be related to drugs, mental illness, or other unrelated factors. 

Only recently criticized (or “cancelled”) for his offensive behavior in the past couple of months is Pete Davidson, a comedian on Saturday Night Live known for being Ariana Grande’s ex-boyfriend. He has been condemned for making a joke about the Manchester bombing at Ariana Grande’s concert before they were dating. When talking about how famous Ariana Grande was, he joked, “Britney Spears didn’t have a terrorist attack at her concert.” While at the time no one thought twice about the joke, it became more controversial after Pete Davidson started dating Ariana Grande and subsequently became more famous. Since then, he has been labeled as a bad boyfriend, and TMZ even accused him of “suicide baiting” Mac Miller by sending intimate photos of Ariana Grande to him. Though that story was completely fictionalized, many people believed it because of all the accusations about him that had been going around online recently.

So what do students at NEST+m think of these celebrities? Do they believe that “cancelling” them for their problematic behavior is effective? Natalya R. Nuñez in the tenth grade doesn't like Kanye West or Azealia Banks based on their past beliefs and actions. She says, “they deserve all the criticism that they get because, honestly, I understand that they have done good things in the past, but ever since they got on Twitter they just lost all my respect because they have done so many stupid things.” 

Nuñez doesn’t believe they deserve another chance to redeem themselves. On the other hand, tenth grader Krishanu Lahiri supports Pete Davidson despite his offensive jokes regarding the Manchester terrorist attack. “My opinion is that Pete Davidson is a comedian, so if people criticize him for being really offensive, I feel like it’s comedy and people should take it as comedy even if it’s really offensive. Of course there is a line, but I don’t think he’s crossed that line yet. His jokes shouldn’t be taken that seriously.” 

NEST+m students also had a lot to say about how we should react if a celebrity does something problematic or insensitive. Lahiri does not think “cancelling” celebrities for their controversial opinions or behavior does anything to help the situation. “I feel like it’s really pointless if someone just goes on Twitter and says ‘oh you’re cancelled!’ It’s not going to do anything. It doesn’t really affect them and the whole ‘you’re cancelled’ stuff eventually dies down after a few weeks, so if you want to take action against a celebrity you’re going to have to do more than just say they’re cancelled on Twitter.” 

Though Lahiri doesn’t think “cancelling” a celebrity does much to affect them, tenth grader Serena Booth thinks otherwise. She says, “I think that a lot of the time we forget that celebrities are people too, and I think that everyone makes mistakes and it would be really hard on a person to be famous and to be looked at through a certain lens and to have every action analyzed, so when people make mistakes it’s easy to just say ‘okay this person is cancelled, we are going to stop supporting this person’ but in the end we are just human and it is not good to ‘cancel’ people for making mistakes.” 

So what is the solution to bad celebrity behavior? Are problematic celebrities like Kanye West, Azealia Banks and Pete Davidson just people who have made mistakes, or have they gone too far and don’t deserve support? While the answer to this question can differ based on the situation, overall, the method of cancelling celebrities based on things they have done is harmful and toxic. The way in which celebrities are cancelled promotes a culture that doesn’t grant people in the public eye second chances or any room for error. While offensive behavior should under no means be excused or brushed under the rug, people should always be given room to grow and learn from their mistakes. Saying that someone is no longer worthy of support is a very permanent statement and doesn’t allow celebrities to become better people and improve themselves. In all, if a celebrity is under fire for something they did or said, we as a society should first help them learn from their mistakes so whatever they did or said doesn’t happen again, because we often forget that celebrities are people, too.