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
Wow… Such sincerity and respect… Please everyone… Lets not make todays subject Professionalism or Mental Health or Jealousy… Music is Sacred in the same way that personal and private assessments are based upon the cultural standards which form the perception of the individual who derives the need to evaluate or precipitate outcomes … My love of music brought me here… My appreciation for diversity as change and exploration is nourished through the many open minds here… My appreciation of quality coupled with my fascination with cerebral excellence keeps me coming back to enjoy as much as there is on any given day… Can we not take the low road for once and for all?
I brought some controversy worthy of discussing here … Check this video out when it come to a visionary approach to prejudice and music …. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=04xD5dcke2w
Regurgitation does not cover the stink trail.
Lets see… 7 pages on How Sexism is alive and well as modern day Witch Hunting practices by people who bind their lives to hundreds of thousands of TMR/Jack White associated pages of social media for more than 10 years purporting that someone else must be the crazy unhinged person who sends 20 pages each day for 365 days a year to the webmaster in question…. All of it sounds crazy to me … Pots and kettles my dears… I joined this thread to see if others thought I should walk down the street with my evidence and documentation from google and facebook to show the police what has been happening to me online with the blessing of my Internet Provider to investigate who is committing fraud in my name… Not even one page or one comment has addressed the felony as it is presented…. Talk about psychological evaluations all you want and beg for some restraining order that purports a ‘dangerous situation’ until you are Blunderbuss Blue in the face and then realize that the drama and the flippers and the media only serve to inflate costs through the cycle of rubberneck reactionary involvement…. Only one person had the decency to tell me “Go to the police and show them what is happening but dont involve TMR.” Obviously he is a gentleman and a scholar… as for the rest of this stuff… I am not interested in threats of bodily harm or libel or any other type of scandalous mockery so if you believe you are in danger then please seek the truth and look for more than some bread crumb trail that a wicked witch or warlock chose to leave… All I see is lack of compsure and prenudice of a different color bird whose feathers are not recognizable by the flock or whatever it is ravens and crows are called when they peck something to bits… Seriously bigger problems exist on Earth at this time and this energy seems wasted
Thank you for responding to this Mr. Swank even though you shouldn’t have to. It is too bad everyone can’t play nice on the internet.
Music unites us yet how it plays out in our own experience varies greatly. In my time as a Jack White fan participating in the social media realm of things, I’ve encountered a wide array of fans. Most of them have been great and I’ve made a lot of friends. Some of them have been a bit scary and have opened my eyes to what can exist out there. In some cases I’ve been fairly naive about how people are and have had a lot to learn. Pretty sure I’ve had some encounters with the person you’re referring to along this road, but it’s hard to say because I feel if it really is one in the same, there are lots of sides to that story. But I’ve also been victim of bullying and unwarranted comments by someone who is commenting very actively in this thread, too. Sometimes you have to just learn to take your ball and go home because there’s no use trying to argue with a wall that the sky is blue and not green.
Ben, what you just posted is completely sunchronistic with what I pondered commenting once I arrived to work after listening to Olivia Jean’s album on Tidal during my 20 minute walk… And that is… I thought music was supposed to unite people… And can’t we just listen to the music, be satisfied by the feelings/inspiration listening gives us… And isn’t that enough? My direct response to your post and what I read of others comments is to just listen to the music! Thank you for bringing it to us!
About the emails you get from one person. You can easily step to the police or something with them. It’s easyto figure out where they come from, so they can get social services or something to help that person.
I doubt naming such people in a post will help. In fact probably give them only more reason to hate you, because “look they are calling me out, look how mean they are!”. People spending their time daily to make hurtful comments will latch to anything to prove their hate. Instead of seeing that their own behaviour is destructive.
without involving myself and all of you in details and minutiae (that we all know is easily open to misinterpretation and further misunderstandings and outcry) let me please simply point out to look at the post for our charity event for the Contributor and compare the amount of comments on that post, or the Margo Price post, or even Dead Weather posts compared to this one. Even though comments on those posts are overwhelming positive, there are far fewer comments on things that have to do with actual music, and art. Obviously I started this, and I hang my head and accept my culpability for feeding these flames. I’d just like to see a return to conversation about art in general. Thank you again for all of your comments, be they supportive of what I had to say or otherwise. Again, we’re in a safe zone here… there are no ‘blacklists’ or bad feelings. I encouraged an open forum so we could get this out of our systems, so thank you all for contributing.
I respect Ben and TMR for addressing the elephant in the room regarding all of this. I find it incredibly disturbing that a lot of this could be originating from the same person. Speaking as someone who has had a past with stalkers it can be really frightening to have to deal with these people and their imagined relationship with you. Nobody deserves to be on the receiving end of that, you do what you have to do to put a stop to it.
I like cod, no bones.