An Interview with the Mods of Reddit's Notorious /r/CoonTown
by Steve Harris
Democracy makes life feel like sitting in a movie theater: we, the audience, see others on stage and must then raise a thumb or lower it as if we were Roman imperators at the the gladiator stage. One of the actors, our media, simplifies and streamlines news into a series of simple categories, portrayed as caricatures. Among their favorites, the “racist” — especially on the internet — plays best.
But who are these internet racists? For the most part, like marginalized minority groups, they are muted in the mainstream media. We hear about them, and see that their comments have been deleted from blogs and newspapers, but few people ask them why they do what they do and why. To rectify this, I headed over to the notorious/infamous Reddit hive of racism /r/CoonTown and asked the moderators (or “mods”) there for a few words, which they were generous to oblige.
