Take a quick second to Google comedian Sarah Silverman and Queen Latifah’s names together. The first images will be of gifs or screencaps from Silverman’s 2007 Comedy Central sketch show, The Sarah Silverman Show, showing the comedian in full blackface. Wearing the costume of minstrel shows — including the overly painted lips — Silverman says during the sketch, “I look like the beautiful Queen Latifah.”

While appearing as a guest on the Bill Simmons Podcast this week, Silverman revealed that she had recently been fired from a film production for the sketch. On the podcast, Silverman said, “I recently was going to do a movie, a sweet part, then at 11pm the night before, they fired me because they saw a picture of me in blackface from that episode.”

“I didn’t fight it. They hired someone else who is wonderful but who has never stuck their neck out,” Silverman added. “It was so disheartening. It just made me real, real sad, because I really kind of devoted my life to making it right.”

The revelation itself is not a problem. If you dress up in blackface, there is no statute of limitations on how long people can bring that up — and as a white woman, it certainly isn’t Silverman’s place to attempt to set one. What’s interesting is that Silverman brought up her blackface appearance within the context of discussing “cancel culture” and the “culture of people going backwards”, or digging into content made years prior in an effort to discredit public figures now.

At one point during the podcast, Silverman said, “I think it’s really scary and it’s a very odd thing that it’s invaded the left primarily and the right will mimic it,” before going on to dub the entire concept “righteousness porn”.

Anxieties around the myth of cancel culture have dominated celebrity discussions for some time. On the internet — where nothing ever dies — past behaviors are much easier to recollect. Clips like Silverman’s blackface sketch may have been buried if it weren’t for the existence of gifs, blogs, and digital memory. But here’s what’s important to remember about cancel culture: it’s not the enemy.

Sarah Silverman tells Howard Stern Louis CK used to masturbate in front of her with her permission

Cancel culture is not a terrible monster waiting to snatch up innocent celebrities and public figures. Instead, it primarily refers to people — often black women — making the active decision to divest from a celebrity and choosing to let others know why. Cancel culture is not a life sentence. As noted by writer Haaniyah Angus, “It seems that many are called out, shamed, and then come back to their livelihoods with no dent whatsoever.”

That much is made quite clear in Silverman’s case. Although Silverman stated in a 2018 GQ profile that she is “horrified” by the sketch and doesn’t stand by it, she cannot change the self-admitted reality that it helped launch her career. Rather than facing backlash at the time, Silverman said that she was praised for her sketch, adding, “It made me famous!” And even if she was fired from one movie, Silverman is still the host of television shows. She still has a career.

“It's inevitable that redemption will happen for the canceled,” Shamira Ibrahim wrote in her defense of cancel culture. “But in that space before the comeback, the best tool remains for the court of public opinion to demand apologies and utilize social media for accountability to set a rubric for engagement, for the future people in entertainment who do care about the communities that consume their content.”

Silverman claims that her fears around cancel culture rest with its ability to be abused by the right. However, her constant centering of her own feelings and emotions in a discussion about an action where she caused harm reveal the truth. The fear of cancel cultures comes from the fact that those in power are suddenly forced to reckon with black women who were never their audiences; instead, they were merely jokes and props to use for their own success.

Silverman’s blackface sketch is not an innocuous mistake; she was a grown woman when it happened. There is nothing wrong with going backwards to interrogate behavior, because the dehumanizing impacts of blackface didn’t spontaneously pop up within the 2010s. Instead, Silverman played into a larger history of black bodies being used as objects for profit, power, and pleasure.

Best comedy shows on Netflix Show all 10 1 /10 Best comedy shows on Netflix Best comedy shows on Netflix Elder Millenial, Iliza Shlesinger If you didn’t think you could possibly laugh at more joke about the trials of womanhood, think again. New York native Iliza Shlesinger brings a fresh take on topics from modern dating to wedding planning headaches. Her show is a delightful mix of reality checks and insightful takes. Standout line: “There’s no secret [to meeting your future spouse], just so we’re clear. Don’t buy the books, don’t buy the hype. There’s no secret, OK? I’m gonna be 35 when I get married. If there was a secret, I would have f****** used it. There’s no secret. There’s no special magic to it. I’m never going to be like, ‘GATHER ROUND, LADIES! Off the 405, lies a toad hole. You must go to it.’” Netflix Best comedy shows on Netflix Nanette, Hannah Gadsby In 2018, Nanette pushed the boundaries of the stand-up special – and indeed it’s so, so much more than a comedy show. In a little more than an hour, Hannah Gadsby deconstructs the makings of a good joke, explains why she’s done with self-deprecation, and delivers an unforgettable, incredibly powerful take on the trauma she’s experienced as a lesbian in Tasmania. Standout line: “I have built a career out of self-deprecating humour and I don’t want to do that anymore. Do you understand what self-deprecation means when it comes from somebody who already exists in the margins? It’s not humility, it's humiliation. I put myself down in order to speak, in order to seek permission to speak, and I simply will not do that anymore. Not to myself or anybody who identifies with me.” Netflix Best comedy shows on Netflix Hard Knock Wife, Ali Wong If you liked Ali Wong in Always Be My Maybe (which she co-wrote!), then you’re going to love her in Hard Knock Wife (her second Netflix special and a follow-up on her 2016 debut Baby Cobra). Her unapologetic takes on motherhood and marriage (did you know she makes a lot more money than her husband and she’s not sorry?) are gold. Standout line: “Now, I make a lot more money than my husband by, like, a long shot. My mom is very concerned that he’s going to leave me out of intimidation. I had to explain to her that the only kind of man who would leave a woman who makes more money… is the kind of man that doesn’t like free money.” Netflix Best comedy shows on Netflix Relatable, Ellen DeGeneres After 15 years of not doing stand-up, the comedian and talk show icon returned to the stage – and, of course, turned the experience into a Netflix special. Under the pretence of pondering whether she’s still relatable, Ellen DeGeneres basks in the (well-earned) glory her accomplishments, reflects on her personal experiences – including her 1997 coming-out and how it was received in Hollywood – and riffs on the absurdities of daily life. What a treat. Standout line: [On losing her sitcom, then struggling to sell a talk-show to TV executives after coming out as a lesbian:] “A lot of people didn’t want to buy it, because no one thought they’d watch. There was this one station manager that said, and this is a quote: ‘No one’s going to watch it. No one’s going to watch a lesbian during the day.’ And I said ‘Well, they weren’t watching me at night. What time of day is good for a lesbian?’” Netflix Best comedy shows on Netflix Son of Patricia, Trevor Noah Trevor Noah has been starring in comedy specials for a decade, so it’s no surprise that he can take just about any topic (tourism in Bali, trap music, a conversation with President Barack Obama) and turn it into incisive jokes. Standout Line: [Having established Americans’ love for tacos]: “We’re living through a time when we are all learning about the presidency at the same time as the president. That’s never happened. How wild is that concept? You wake up every day reading the news, and you’re like ‘Wow, I didn’t know that.’ And somewhere, at that exact same moment, he’s reading the same news, going, ‘Wow, me too.’" Netflix Best comedy shows on Netflix Glitter Room, Katherine Ryan Katherine Ryan’s second Netflix special (the follow-up to In Trouble, which came out in 2017) tackles some of her trademark topics, from dating to co-parenting, in a lighthearted, self-affirming way. A delight through and through. Standout line: [About a romantic partner:] “He said, ‘Well, I need to be with someone who makes me a priority. And I suppose, because you have a child, I will never be your first priority. I shall always be second.’ And I was like, ‘Hah! Second? Oh… no.’” Netflix Best comedy shows on Netflix Weirdo, Donald Glover Back in 2012, Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, was appearing as the unforgettable Troy Barnes in Community – and spared a little time to record a Netflix special, which remains available to this day. Throughout this one-hour show, he shows off his range, reflecting on his music career, reaching his late twenties, and that brief time when the internet really wanted him to play Spider-Man. Standout line: “I lived in Downtown LA, and Downtown LA is kind of like the Eighties decided to stay there. They’re like, ‘Oh, OK, you guys go ahead and be the Nineties. Go enjoy Ace of Base – we’ll be here practicing the Moonwalk and selling crack.’” Comedy Central / Netflix Best comedy shows on Netflix Not Normal, Wanda Sykes There’s perhaps one person on Earth who can make the Mueller report genuinely funny – and that person is Wanda Sykes. The comedian might be best known for her roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Black-ish, but her stand-up is well worth a watch. She has impeccable timing, sharp writing, and an apparently effortless ability to connect with her crowd. Standout line: “In the Mueller investigation, how does [Trump] not know that he’s Individual Number one? Come on. 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