I’ve been avoiding the Loren Feldman issue for quite a while. I just had a bad feeling about the whole thing and black bloggers addressing the issue seemed to have the matter well in hand.
So I was quite surprised to hear of Verizon’s deal with Loren Feldman, founder of 1938 Media and creator of the controversial Tech N*gga character. Even my surface impressions of Feldman’s work suggested an inappropriate match for a major brand.
Verizon’s quick about face did not surprise me in the least but there’s a limit to what I can say about the controversy without checking out the relevant videos and more of the history, which I guess I’ll be doing at some point.
Hank Williams has a thoughtful post on this topic with a bit of context. He also expresses his surprise at tech bloggers support for and appreciation of Feldman.
Given the historical and sometimes hysterical defense of racist, sexist and homophobic speech in the tech blogging scene, that certainly doesn’t surprise me one bit.
Update:
There’s a nice post and worthwhile discussion over at Liz Burr’s.
I was reading about this the other and thought, “Wow, it took them this long to get rid of that jerk.” All around deplorable.