There’s been quite a ruckus in the podosphere lately caused by a hate speech podcast. They’ve been posting extremely offensive messages in various forums and have been banned from many. Except Podshow-related sites run by Adam Curry.
I like Adam. He’s a good guy. He’s made the decision that hate mongering scum have the right to free speech on Podshow web sites. His company, his decision. I disagree with it. If the four of you who voted for me at Podcast Alley this month want to keep voting for me, please do it at Podcast Pickle.
I’ve been thinking about doing a podcast on what it’s like to be the victim of racism and discrimination, but frankly, I don’t know if I could get through it. Making the transition from being a white Anglo-Saxon male in the US to a minority in a foreign land was rough and painful, but it was a real eye-opener to how disgusting racism and discrimination truly are. In fact, until the tables were turned and racism became an issue that occasionally affects me and my family, maybe I used to be a closet racist myself.
So that’s the way I feel, and very strongly at that. It might not be the way you feel. I’m OK with that. Lots of people have strong feelings one way or the other. That’s why it’s called a controversy.
No flaming on my blog please. Hate and anger just breed more hate and anger, and I’ve never been good with handling either. That’s why I want nothing to do with Podcast Alley anymore. Being in the same community as those racists brings out emotions in me I don’t want to deal with.
A podcast on “Making the transition from being a white Anglo-Saxon male in the US to a minority in a foreign land” would be very interesting material, im sure it would help open some eyes
In my own mind, I’ve made peace with the people who mistreated me, because I’m a better person for having met them. However, my half-blood kids will have to confront discrimination for the rest of their lives. And not just name-calling. That’s the part I have trouble discussing. Writing about it is much easier than talking about it. The guilt is irrational on my part, but it’s there. The good thing is they have no choice but to grow into better people than those who’d rather sweep the issue under the rug than take a stand against it.
The few loudmouths over at Podcast Alley who are crawling up Adam Curry’s ass over his decision and slandering him, they’re just as annoying as the racists. Even moreso, because they don’t know when to put a cork in it in regards to just about any issue. No surprise that people like them become podcasters. I don’t want that shit to spill over to here.
Just feel proud of your kids – bilingual, bicultural, they’ll grow up twice as switched on as the rest of the kids on the block and with extra options for the future. I hope to face the same problem when I have some half-spanish, half-english (my half) kids here in Spain one day.
I know what it’s like to feel like the foreign guy, I’ve put up with it in Spain for seven years (usually just idiot comments from a few idiot spaniards and getting ripped off a lot by waiters and taxis) – but the rewards of living and seeing somewhere from an external point of view, as an ex-outsider – and being able to podcast/vid-cast/blog all the better about it as a result – outweigh the foreigner/racist shit in the end. If you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine, I understand how shit all that crap is, but for God’s sake, Don’t Feel Guilty!
Yesterday evening a coworker and I recorded a bilingual podcast (me speaking English, he speaking Japanese) about racism and descrimination. Just right now I’ve sat down in front of the computer to start editing it.
Adam Curry addresses the PC Alley hatecast/forum fighting issues on todays DSC (5th October). He seems to says all the right things, but I guess it all should have come a Lot sooner.
The reason he finally addressed it was because I wrote to Xeni Jardin (as seen on Boing Boing, NPR, Wired, CNN) about how the controversy is tearing the podcasting community apart for weeks now, and I CC’d Adam and Chris from PCA on the message. So when he was talking about being very, very pissed off after reading his mail, feeling blackmailed, and being disappointed in how people were reacting, most likely he was referring to that message.
I’m OK with him being angry with me. I’ve never said a nasty word about him and I won’t start today. I’m happy that the podcasting community can start to heal now. He’s lucky he didn’t have to react to a published story about the controversy. Instead, if the press covers it now, he’ll appear to have been proactive instead of reactive over the issue. He’s so pissed off that he might not realize that. In fact, it’s so much NOT a controvery anymore, than I doubt anyone will want to report it anymore. Not just him, but the entire indy podcasting community was starting to look very bad over this, and for me it was too sad to watch people get sucked into the hate and anger.
And if he feels that I blackmailed him, I don’t see it that way. Had I wrote to him and said, “Adam, if you don’t do something about this controversy I’m going to alert the press,” that would have been blackmail. All I did was pass on some infomation to Xeni that she didn’t yet have.
When you’ve been struck by an arrow, you don’t lay there on the ground pondering what direction it came from, which of your enemies shot it, what the head is made of, what kind of bird feather was used to make the fletcher…you pull the damn thing out ASAP before you bleed to death.