Jimmy Kimmel UN-Cancelled...Sort Of

As Disney backtracks due to billions lost, our response should be to step on the gas and move forward

Less than a week after cancelling Jimmy Kimmel, Disney and ABC have backtracked. As of this Tuesday, Jimmy Kimmel is back on air…sort of. In this article I share how to cancel your Disney+ subscription (because they’ve made it harder to cancel), and share a hard truth about Disney backtracking. Spoiler: It had nothing to do with morals or ethics. We have an opportunity to send a message to the billionaire class, and we should take this opportunity to do so. Let’s Address This.

How to Cancel Disney+

Before diving into the article, here’s my 90 second tutorial on how to make sure you’ve cancelled Disney+. The Biden administration had enacted a rule to allow for 1-click cancellations. The Trump regime rescinded that rule, and that’s why it takes at least five steps to cancel a simple Disney+ subscription. I walk through that process:

Four Facts About Boycotts

Now let’s dive into this boycott, what purpose boycotts serve, why they work, and why we must continue to work together. It is only with a unified front that we can effectively tear down the systems of oppression that deny people their humanity.

1. Boycotts Work — Billions Lost

Jimmy Kimmel is back—sort of. After ABC/Disney pulled him off the air to appease Trump, the boycott that followed cost them billions. Some put the estimate at more than $4 billion in less than a week. But understand this key point, money is the only reason he’s back. Not the law. Not ethics. Not some sudden burst of morality or courage. Money. Boycott is the only language corporate greed understands.

And also, Kimmel isn’t actually fully back. Sinclair Media, which owns most of the local broadcasting stations, is still refusing to air Kimmel. Rather than simply standing up for free speech, Disney is trying to convince their MAGA base that Kimmel is still cancelled, while trying to convince those who support free speech that he’s not. This hypocrisy is yet another reason why you should continue to cancel your Disney+ subscription. And this isn’t the only reason to double down on boycotting Disney+.

2. Disney Still Funds Genocide

Cancelling Jimmy Kimmel under pressure from Trump is just scratching the surface of Disney’s injustices. Disney is still funneling money to support IDF affiliate orgs, even as the UN confirms that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

I’ve said this before—companies and politicians who are silent as the Israeli military kills 300+ journalists in Gaza, will also enable the silencing of journalists and satirists here in the United States. As Dr. King reminds us, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This is why it is critical we stand in global solidarity against injustices in both Gaza and in the United States.

3. Where’s the Solidarity for Black Women?

Speaking of solidarity, we need to speak up for more than Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel’s “uncanceling” highlights another hypocrisy. Where’s the solidarity for Black women journalists like Joy Reid fired from MSNBC? Tiffany Cross, also fired from MSNBC? Amber Ruffin, cancelled from the White House correspondent’s dinner? Or Karen Attiah, fired from The Washington Post for quoting Charlie Kirk’s racist remarks?

Meanwhile, the Post just ran an editorial calling for renewing war in Afghanistan. If you are still subscribing to the Washington Post, for example, please know that in firing Karen Attiah, they let go their last full time Black opinion columnist in the same week the entire editorial board advocated for another invasion of Afghanistan—the latter definitely at Trump’s urging. In other words, if you are still giving money to the Washington Post, you are funding state media as it beats more war drums. Cancel them. Spend your dollars elsewhere (like supporting Karen Attiah).

4. Fascist Actions Demand Lasting Consequences

Finally, can I be blunt for a moment? I love my unmelinated neighbors. But that’s also why I need my unmelinated neighbors to stop with these horrible takes that its time to “forgive” Disney+. Please do not do what is suggested here:

No, the point of a boycott is to dismantle the systems of oppression that warranted the boycott in the first place. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted for 381 days. It finally ended, not because that particular bus company decided that segregation was bad for its business model, but because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Browder v. Goyle that racial segregation on public busses was unconstitutional. Once that system of oppression was destroyed, the boycott was ended.

That’s what must happen here.

Listen, this is not about punishing little Sally’s lemonade stand. We are boycotting multinational trillion-dollar corporations enabling dictatorship, fascism, and war crimes. Fascist actions demand lasting consequences. So keep your foot on the gas. Continue to send the message to Disney+ that we recognize their attempt to backtrack a terrible decision, but that doesn’t undo the damage done, the precedent set, or the systemic injustice still in place.

By capitulating to Trump’s FCC Chair Brandan Carr (who co-write Project 2025) and firing Kimmel per his threat, Disney conveyed that they will not stand up against autocracy and suppression of speech. Therefore they do not deserve our money or our trust, especially for doing the absolute bare minimum in partially giving Jimmy Kimmel his job back. Continue to boycott them for their hypocrisy, for their silence on 300+ journalists killed in Gaza, for their enabling of genocide, and for their shameful fecklessness in failing to stand up for free speech against the Trump regime.

The Path Forward

Less than a week after canceling Jimmy Kimmel, Disney and ABC backtracked. That wasn’t because of principle. It wasn’t because they found their spine. It was because they lost billions. That’s the power of collective action. That’s the power of us.

But let’s be clear: this fight is bigger than one comedian. Disney still funds genocide in Gaza. Corporate media still silences Black women journalists. The Washington Post still pushes for endless war. These corporations will keep siding with fascism until we make it more costly for them to do so than to stand for justice.

This is why boycotts are not about quick wins. They are about sustained solidarity and dismantling systems of oppression. They are about saying to billionaires and autocrats alike: we see you, we reject you, and we will not bankroll your oppression. That’s why we cannot let up now.

The bottom line is this. Corporate media has chosen capitulation. Independent voices like this platform survive only because of you. So, if you value these updates, if you feel confidence in solidarity, if you know that justice requires courage—then I invite you to support my work. Subscribe, share, and stand with me. Because the truth is, I can’t do this alone. But together, we can hold the line against fascism, demand justice across borders, and prove—again and again—that when we unite, we win.