# Letter to the Editor: Combat Cancel Culture 

Defending individual dignity, promoting agency and acknowledging the nuances that make up every human life should be values we all share.

November 2, 2026 • Commentary 

By [Erec Smith](https://www.cato.org/people/erec-smith) 

This article appeared in the [Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/11/02/when-voting-becomes-team-effort/) on November 2, 2026.

The Oct. 30 front-page article “[Purge of DEI programs takes a major toll on Black workers](https://archive.is/o/0vACd/https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/10/29/fired-federal-worker-shamed-dei-watchlist-struggles-find-job/)” reminded me of how, during what many now call “Woke 1.0,” countless people were deemed irredeemable for merely aligning with unpopular ideas, making mistakes or committing what some perceived as mistakes. Now, it seems, right-wing organizations such as the American Accountability Foundation have taken a page from the culture-war playbook with its [DEI Watchlist](https://archive.is/o/0vACd/https://www.deiwatchlist.com/about), in which former diversity, equity and inclusion professionals are tallied and, one assumes, blacklisted. The organization calls it [an effort to](https://archive.is/o/0vACd/https://www.deiwatchlist.com/) “restore integrity and common sense to our government.”

Integrity and common sense are good things to preserve, but one need not destroy people’s livelihoods indefinitely to do so. I saw this happen often as a result of “woke” initiatives seeking to radically transform the institutions. Now I am seeing it in anti-woke initiatives. Same nonsensical intolerance, different end of the spectrum.

Even if these diversity administrators were involved in discriminatory programs, they should not be subjected to a lifelong punishment. They could join diversity efforts consistent with meritocracy and true equality.

We can challenge ideas and policies without reducing individual human beings to ideological labels. We can criticize DEI policies without treating individuals as political enemies. Defending individual dignity, promoting agency and acknowledging the nuances that make up every human life should be values we all share.

##### About the Author 

[![ErecSmith-cropped.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2023-02/ErecSmith-cropped.jpg?itok=p8wlcACq)](/people/erec-smith) 

##### [Erec Smith](/people/erec-smith)

Research Fellow, Cato Institute, and Cofounder, Free Black Thought

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