Over the weekend, after a slew of white writers employed by prestigious Canadian media outlets were called out following their very public support of a proposed Appropriation Prize, Jon Kay stepped down as editor-in-chief at The Walrus. Ta da!

Which, like, great? Sure! Yes. For real, absolutely, it is good that in the wake of his legacy of defending white men and their right to free speech – and of coming to the defense of Hal Niedzviecki, who crystallized this particular gong show after arguing that cultural appropriation wasn't a thing – that Kay gave up his seat at a national magazine. One small step for Canadian media, one giant leap for anybody who could not believe actual people were pledging upwards of $400 in support of an award meant to honour whiteness. On Twitter. In public. Where everybody could see them.

Imagine how comfortable you'd have to feel. (Cashmere levels of comfort, TBH.)

But I mean, none of us even has to imagine, because the climate that bred these writers didn't exactly waltz in as part of some kind of super-stealth sneak attack. The confidence needed to so brazenly defend cultural appropriation stems from centuries of systemic racism, so it's not like Kay's resignation can be equated to beating Bowser in the media version of Super Mario Bros. Kay's actually just a Koopa shell. Which means there's about a million more where he came from.

And that's a buzzkill in the realest sense. It's a buzzkill because Kay's supporters will likely morph him into a martyr for their own backwards causes. It's a buzzkill because Kay was hardly alone in voicing his views. It's a buzzkill because he and his peers are the products of a bigger system chock-full of gates they intend to keep on keeping. And it's a buzzkill because it happened. Like, in general.

Regardless of somebody being "glib" or not, it takes a real, um, character, to log onto Twitter dot com and champion whiteness in literature and media so overtly. Specifically, it takes a very sad and ignorant character. One who happens to have several hundred dollars just sitting around, waiting to be donated to appropriation prizes. (No word on how much avocado toast they've avoided consuming in order to save so much.)

But I mean, hey! It is good that Jon Kay has left The Walrus. But also, he's just the first shell. We've got a long way to go before we take on the millions more still spinning around us.