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
This is why I avoid “knowing” Jack White’s and others lives. I love music and the arts. I don’t care to know the details of jack and meg and I don’t care if Michael Jackson is a pedaphile. I don’t care if johnny cash was a womanizer and I really don’t care if lil Richard was gay. What I care about is that the art is always there to enjoy. So next time you want to ask jw “how he is” remember the last time you asked someone… Did u care to hear the truth? I personally wish the very best for him but I don’t care how he has been. He is insignificant in your life’s need to live. So just enjoy the gifts he bares and gives to us. Stop trying to figure people out and figure yourself out first. How can we express anything if we can’t give definition to what’s in front of our own eyes. So please for the sake of anything stop the dick showing contest. In other words we all should shut upyself included and enjoy the music.
One last thing and then I am happily turning this over: When I refer to obtaining IP addresses, let me be crystal clear in that I am not talking about consulting with your own webmaster. Good day, all.
And by “literally” I mean that I fell asleep on my tablet, so have a nice day, semantics police
After literally sleeping on this, I do believe there was a bit of bait-and-switch happening at the end of this public letter. As in, ‘This is what was said to the (MAN) running the Tumblr site who is also connected directly to this mentally unstable WOMAN who emails here multiple times daily, and in between, seems to singlehandedly perpetuate hatred all over the internet against TMR’s female artists, but really particularly Olivia Jean, and we hate misogyny, homophobia, and sexism, and will stand up to that, so we’re the good guys!’ Yes, I am obviously paraphrasing VERY freely, but that’s essentially the subtext to what’s written here. It does feel like TMR goes to great lengths to put out fires and kerfluffles, particularly going as far as investigating people’s IP addresses, which I am not sure is even legal. If it is, perhaps you should have the mentally unstable person arrested and not publicise that to deflect attention from the first issue, which is that you wrote to a blog you didn’t like, much in the aforementioned style of TMR as mentioned by other commentators here. It does seem pedestrian that we as fans have come to expect this from this company. There HAS been censorship of your Instagram. Anyone who follows it knows that. As I mentioned before, that’s your gallery to do what you will, but not every comment there that has been erased has cursed the day someone was born or been bigoted, so I am having a hard time digesting that this is all in the name of truth, justice, and the American whatever. I DO feel I will be blacklisted for this, and that’s a strange way to feel about your favourite record company. Not everyone likes everything, but TMR’s attempt at fighting against that HAS become an almost daily occurrence, from Twitter to Instagram, and it’s disappointing. I’m exhausted even participating in this discussion, but it needs to be said: Please, have the unstable woman served with a restraining order and stand up to your perception of bigotry, but don’t act any longer like TMR doesn’t have the reputation you do for a reason. It’s not conjecture when we actually see it happening. Publicising the plight of a mentally ill person is in poor taste. Let the police handle it, and realise that obtaining IP addresses and manipulating social media makes you seem VERY MUCH like Big Brother to many. There are members of the press in the Vault, is that a reputation you really wish to perpetuate?
Let’s be honest. Some fans go to far and need to apologize, OJ should apologize for going off on Instagram, no matter what or who set her off, in my opinion a public figure should not act that way and should know that they will never ever please everyone.
For example, her album is not my cup of tea, I did not enjoy her live. But everytime I say that, since I am a woman, I am labeled jealous or petty. There is nothing I can do about that except be secure in myself and my opinions. Even fans are subject to bullying and labels not just the artists. You really can’t please everyone, no matter who you are.
TMR should not have to be the police on the playground and it will be debated whether they should even try.
As far as obsessive and dangerous behavior, that is another subject entirely.
Green Series!!!!
One thing I’d like to address is that Tumblr is not a scary place. Like anywhere else on the internet, it is what you make of it. National Geographic has a Tumblr page. PBS has a Tumblr page. I’ve also found many pages for spectacular photographers, one for the terrific magazine Oxford American, another for the writings of a Scottish Zen monk living in Arizona, and one for a woman who is working her way through listening to and reviewing every record in her husband’s vast record collection. And that’s the word for Tumblr- vast. It contains a LOT of stuff. If you go there looking only for pages about your favorite rock star then, yes, you’re likely to find some scary stuff. Because Tumblr is also a place where people express their fantasies, and our fantasies run the gamut from light to dark. When those fantasies are expressed in such a public place and get noticed by other people who share similar ones, it’s not surprising that the fantasies would begin feeding off of each other and become emboldened. But again, it’s not the place where they’re expressed that’s scary, it’s that the people who’re expressing them sometimes can’t differentiate between what’s healthy and what’s not, and what should be public (because once you throw a hashtag on it, honey, you’re opening it up to anyone in the world who has an internet connection and chooses to search on that tag) and what should not, what should be re-blogged and what should not. As for the rest of the subject at hand, all I can say is that I feel so very sad for everyone involved and everyone affected.
I’m all for positivity, I’d be proud to be a hippie alongside of you, Ben. And by positive, I don’t mean blind adoration for every project. I enjoy a good discussion with intelligent or clever individuals whose opinions differ. But I have no tolerance for hurtful, baseless, insensitive comments.
you asked for comments, so….
meh. Honestly, I dunno much about this, and I am not sure why you are involving yourself(and us) to this level and publicizing the issue, here. I do know it makes me want to spend time elsewhere, to be real. Feels exhausting to just read along, much less participate in whatever this is. Not to mention it all seems so…so…so very pedestrian.
Seems an awful lot of posts from TMR (twitter, fb, vault) have to do with putting out fires and tamping down fights. It’s getting kind of old. Really wish I was commenting on the newest green series release, instead.
What’s a tumblr?? Just kidding lol not a fan of it