Dear Vault members, friends, family, and associated members of the Peanut Gallery,
Your old friend Ben Swank here.... A couple of weeks ago I sent a small letter to a site express my distaste for the manner in which they were using and manipulating our materials which then exploded into a bit of an online kerfuffle. We were accused of censorship, harassment, Big Brother tactics (the book not the show) and generally being really bad people who hate Freedom Of Expression. I'd like to copy and paste that letter here below for you all:
We respect your right to speak freely. We also exercise this right ourselves, which is what we're about to do here. Here goes... We can no longer watch your Tumblr blog exist without pointing out the racism and sexism that is inherent to its content.
We realize that the tone of your site is humorous, and we sure do love to laugh, but the posts on your blog are often no more than literary black face, and it frustrates us to have Third Man-related content used with this mocking tone. Throw in the racist jab or two about Asians and a few dozen decidedly anti-feminist posts, and what we have is a blog full of negative and unproductive contributions to society.
This letter won't begin to address the libel your site perpetuates, of which there is quite a lot.
We can't ask you to take down your parody account, nor would we try, but let it be known that you offend us in every way.
A couple points if I may:
1. I never asked them to remove or censor their content in any way
2. I understand they considered their site a 'parody'. Still offensive. And this is the first time I've ever done something like this. It was the usage of our materials in that way and seeing it spread around the internet that got me to a place where I needed to say something.
I am a person that believes greatly in self expression and privacy. I want fans to have places online where they can discuss anything they like regarding Third Man without fear of our ire or scrutiny. But I've not said anything about this for a few years, but I'm going to go ahead and say this now... There is a strikingly (dare I say eerie) similar tone between those rants on that tumblr site to a lot of comments you see all over the internet whenever articles are posted about Olivia Jean or other female TMR-associated artists, same tone and phraseology that existed on this Black Belles hate-blog that used to exist, and the same tone and language used from this slightly unhinged person who emails me directly 20 or more times a day who thinks she (SHE being the woman sending the emails) is in a relationship with Jack White and who wants nothing more then to ruin Olivia Jean's career. What I'm saying is this could likely be one person working under different names and log ins (we have confirmation from our webmaster and other media outlets and websites that these originate from the same IP address) and what they are doing is embarrassing and irresponsible. This is all just to say that the internet is many things. A lot of those things are amazing, but there's a side of the internet where people can act in an anonymous and abhorrent manner that they would never act in real life and I hate to see other people exposed to, and believe, some of the hate and negativity that is espoused out there in the online vortex... Especially when so much of what is being said is based on falsehoods, conjecture and half-truths.
To be clear I very much encourage open discourse regarding music and criticism. I get that not everybody likes everything Third Man releases musically, we travel in a lot of musical worlds and not everything is for everyone. If this was about music in any way, then I would get it. But myself, I'm not a person who can stand watching cruelty based on racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, or how people look or dress. We all have freedom of expression. I'm all for it. I hope it can remain positive and stimulating, but that's not always the case and sometimes when it gets to be too much I'm going to express my freedom of expression and say so. Just like I'm doing now.
This is likely something people want to discuss further. I welcome it. Please leave comments and I'll check in and reply. I'll also try and make myself available on Vault chat to talk more if people want to.
thanks for your time and understanding,
Swank
Note: if any of you think the toxic person is me then i hope you will understand that i have no interest in character assassination as a part of promoting truth and beauty equally
THANK YOU SO MUCH for standing up against racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia etc. I hate that you even had to address it (because why should anyone have to justify calling out injustice and mistreatment?), but I’m glad you took the time to defend your position. This makes me proud to be a member of the TMR community, and I’m so glad to support a business that shares my values and is vocal about these issues. Good for you, TMR!
Wow…. Thats awful stuff… Sorry to hear that OJ is being singled out even though I know she is not the only one taking heat in the TMR crowd… being an artist means that expressing myself means more to me than social fanfare but that doesnt mean that it doesnt hurt sometimes and when it comes to privacy invasion the fact remains that one can become compromised by others hate and disruptive efforts until they find a way to get on a different level….. As pertains to Swank having a view on character assassination and the reasons which may or may not be defined by bias my sensibility would be to point out that hate is hate no matter how you dress it up and parade it around.. That point made there is a time and place for some constructive criticism for us all to grow and recieve a bit of quality feedback… Ultimately this is one reason my facebook has died and my twitter ran dry and i never bothered to start up a Tumbler or other soxial media…. The hate associated with my name and my interactions at various boards or community think pots was dispeoportionately expressed as though it were riddled with a fatal disease… I dont wish that on anyone.. Not only is it disturbing to think such things should be perpetuated but its indicative of why our human nature continues to place unrealistic demands upon those brave enough to be creative or introduce innovative ideas to a dreary and dank or possibly decimated soulscape of distrust.. Get well soon Haters.. Life is bigger than any 4 letter word associated with negativity… Thanks Ben and friends … Lets not joke about others misfortunes as a way of offering some honor at this sacred table on a regular basis.. Cheers
I give up just try and decipher my gibberish
Adressed not stressed,rather not eater, and new not net. Just my three worst typos in my statement. I wish at times I could correct edit things in here but I also like that heath what you say there are no take backs in the vault. Now I understand jacks statement in chat about people hiding under different screen names.
Thanks Swank! I don’t do tumbler but I saw some really nasty things about OJ on instagram I even I a small way stressed OJ about this verbal diareah they were spewing. They even posted a portion of supposedly your email on there. Its just redicilious. I see these things they are sayin it just makes me sick. Eater than engage them and give them the attention they are so obviously seeking and scroll on. Hopefully they eventually get what they are doing is wrong and hurtful but from the sounds of it they just hide under a net name to spread their hate. Yes I have a screen name here by I have used this same one since the days of dial up and use it in other formats on the net. Anyhow I hope you be made a difference either way I encourage other not to feed these peoples behavior.
Well put!! Another proud moment as a Vault member.
glad to know tmr’s point of view and glad to know who wrote it. and really really glad that it is you, Ben, who talks about this issue, thanks a lot
Thanks for addressing this. I’ve seen and been very bothered by some of the comments re: Olivia Jean that you referenced. The right to freedom of expression shouldn’t used as an excuse to engage in abusive and/or menacing behavior. I think we all have a responsibility to let the individuals engaged in this nonsense know that we aren’t going to support or tolerate it.
Good on you for addressing this and stating your POV, which you certainly didn’t have to do. You have my respect.