Can We Still Bump n’ Grind to R. Kelly?

To Grapple with the Immorality of Artists We May Have to Go Through Their Art

Whatever else “cancel culture” might be about, when it comes to the arts, it’s about this—if you want to do right as a consumer of art, the work of some artists is off the table. Whether it’s painters or pop stars, when these artists cross the moral line, we are supposed to cut their art out of our lives completely.

I think this view is mistaken, but not because I’m some aesthete who thinks ethics has nothing to do with art. Rather, I think this view is wrong for ethical reasons. …