Q&A: Hank Williams discusses racism, 1938 Media videos, TIS comment thread

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:31:40 -0700

Following the aborted deal to distribute 1938 Media's videos over Verizon's VCast service, the topic of racism in the online world is still a sore point. Some of the debate took place on the Industry Standard website, in response to a post and comments by Industry Standard writer Jordan Golson. I decided to ask Hank Williams, a blogger who was criticized by Golson, what he thought about the comments, as well as his reactions to the controversy over a new 1938 Media video.

Cyndy: First, Hank, let me say that I was a little surprised Jordan didn't know you or your writing.

Williams: Oh, I wasn't surprised that Jordan didn't know me, but I was shocked that I was being judged based on my blog template.

Before Jordan's article and the comments, were you familiar with his writing?

I was familiar with his name. After the fact, I searched and found Jordan's work at Valleywag, and realized he was the writer who'd had the kerfluffle with Owen [Thomas].

I'm sure by now you've seen Loren Feldman's latest video. What's your take on it?

At this point, this is the example of what you do when you have nothing else to lose. He'll never get another mainstream deal for distribution, so why not go out with a bang?

I think that Loren is angry. I think he's an angry guy. He didn't start out being angry at blacks, but he is now based on the response he's gotten. He also seems to have a racist fan base in there, and he feeds off that as well.

At this point, is there anything he could do to apologize or change the perception of some of these videos?

I do think that people can detect sincerity, but I think he'd have to do something that isn't in him. He's too prideful and angry at this point. But everybody has an opportunity for redemption.

The totality of the three pieces together is someone coming from a not very good place.

My take on it was that Loren really could have done a video about any group other than white men in the tech area; women and Hispanics come to mind as two groups under-represented. Do you think if he had chosen a different group he could have pulled off the commentary without being offensive to so many people?

Look, I'm a Howard Stern fan. And if you listen to [Stern] in context, it comes from someone with a spirit of decency. He doesn't come off as trying to hurt people. It's a totally different vibe.

There could have been a way to point out the white male dominance and be funny without being offensive. But there aren't many groups in American outside of black people who have such a rich history of really painful things to make fun of.

[Feldman] has his little corner, and it's certainly fine for people to like him, but my problem is large companies giving it a platform.

I'd like to thank Williams for taking the time to talk with me. You can keep up with him at his blog, Why Does Everything Suck? as well as the Silicon Alley Insider.

More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:

Special Feature: The Digital Home of 2013: 10 consumer technologies that will succeed, and five that will fail
Special Feature: Where are they now? The Industry Standard tracks down 10 dot-coms from the Web bubble of the late 1990s
Special Feature: The Industry Standard's Top 25 B-to-Z List Blogs