What would MLK say about cancel culture?

"Cancel culture" as a phrase belongs to a debate that arose after my time, but the underlying tensions it describes — between accountability and redemption, between righteous anger and mob judgment — are ones I wrestled with directly. Let me be honest about what I can say with confidence from my own record, and what is inference. What I documented clearly is my concern about division within movements for justice. I warned that those fighting oppression could become their own worst enemies when they turned on one another rather than on the structures of injustice themselves. I wrote in Where Do We Go from Here that "the Pharaohs had a favorite and effective strategy to keep their slaves in bondage: keep them fighting among themselves." I also wrote, in the essay A Testament of Hope, that “The luxury of a leisurely approach to urgent solutions—the ease of gradualism—was forfeited by ignoring the issues for too long” So I have no patience for those who use calls for patience as a reason to shield the powerful from accountability. But here is where I must be honest that I am inferring: I believe the question worth pressing is not whether someone should be called to account, but toward what end. Punishment that forecloses redemption serves neither justice nor the beloved community. The goal must always be transformation — of persons and of systems — not simply condemnation.