The cancelling of Kurt Zouma

Kurt Zouma is a professional footballer playing for Westham United in the English Premier League. This past week, a video, believed to have been posted by his brother on Snapchat, circulated on social media showing him kicking and slapping his cat causing an uproar by the public. Although he apologised, the consequences were dire. He was fined two weeks' wages of £250,000 by his club, Adidas cancelled his footwear sponsorship deal and his two cats were taken away by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). As if that was not enough, there is a current petition for his prosecution that has been signed by over 330,000 people. In his home country France, Zouma could face up to four years in prison if found guilty. There have also been calls for his contract to be terminated. Westham further lost two sponsors after including him in the team that played during the week.

I have shared my views about cancel culture before. I honestly think that the world is going crazy. Our reaction to any wrong doing is to inflict the maximum pain possible. Although I totally acknowledge that what Zouma did was wrong, I feel that the reaction to the incident is totally disproportionate. Was an apology not good enough? What about a fine? What about the taking away of his pets? Some people still want him to lose everything, what kind of a society are we becoming?

The advent of social media has given people a powerful voice and platform to air their views about societal issues and the consequences have been far reaching. Social media has become this ruthless judge to anyone brought to its courts. Companies have become often too powerless to stand against the tide of public opinion which has seen people getting fired and sponsorship deals terminated all driven by people's sentiments on social media, and I totally get it. Companies run the risk of getting cancelled themselves if they do not act hence they always choose to take the easy way out even though in the absence of public pressure, they would possibly have acted otherwise.

A closer look at animal cruelty

So, Zouma was wrong no doubt about that, but please forgive my whataboutism for a moment. Two million kangaroos are killed each year to make football boots by sportswear companies including Adidas. Is that not animal cruelty? I have not seen much outcry about trophy hunters who go to Africa each year to kill animals just for the fun of it. Maybe that too is not animal cruelty? What about many other sports that make use of animals, why is that not animal cruelty? Am I justifying Zouma kicking and slapping his cats? Far from it, but is there no animal cruelty all over which demands the same strong response? And, i'm not too sure about the animals we slaughter everyday for meat, maybe we should all be vegetarians after all for moral reasons!

A case of double standards?

This matter has also sparked debate about race. Would Zouma have been punished this much if he was not a person of colour? Ironically, Addidas was Luis Suarez's sponsor for 11 years up to 2018. In 2011, he was charged with racism by the Football Association. Between 2010 and 2014, he had 3 incidences of bitting opponents which resulted in him being suspended for a total of 17 games but his sponsorship remained intact. Or maybe it is because social media was not yet this powerful? There have been other off the field incidences involving footballers but Zouma's punishment seems too harsh in comparison.

We all fall short

I have said this but I will say it again. I'm yet to see a saint amongst us. As human beings, we fall short in so many ways and although the most desirable thing is not to fall at all, the next best thing is to rise when we fall. Instead of condemning each other for falling, why can't we judge each other by how we rise after we fall short? The mere fact that someone is a public figure does not make them infallible as much as we expect them to be exemplary. If the veils covering our private lives were to be lifted, would we stand up to public scrutiny ourselves? All I'm saying is, let us treat each other with grace knowing that we all fall short. Instead of hitting someone when they are down, instances of falling short could be turned into valuable teachable moments.