The Slants: Asian-American band who took the fight for their name to the US Supreme Court
- When ‘Chinatown dance rock’ group tried to trademark their name, little did they know it would begin a years-long legal battle
- ‘Art is a form of activism’ says founder and bass player Simon Tam, who uses music to champion the overlooked and under-represented
The curious case of The Slants is no ordinary underdog tale of Asian-American identity politics, infinitely nuanced trademark law, heated constitutional wrangling and defiantly catchy rock music. It’s far more complex than that. At first glance, the basic elements of a story that grew exponentially, from a legal formality into an incendiary debate at the Supreme Court of the United States, appear simple enough. Beneath the surface, however, is a rabbit hole of densely interwoven cultural issues that look set to be debated for generations.
The Slants are an Asian-American band from Portland, Oregon, founded in 2004 by Simon Tam, a bass player of Chinese and Taiwanese descent. The current line-up includes vocalist Ken Shima, whose heritage is Japanese, and guitarist Joe X. Jiang, who was born in Jinan, the capital of eastern China’s Shandong province. Tyler Chen joins them on drums for live performances. Their music is loud and lively, positioned midway between dance and rock, but their notoriety has more to do with the courtroom than the concert stage.
“In the beginning, when I started the group, I didn’t want to be politically active. I just wanted to play music,” says Tam, 38. As a young man, Tam could never have predicted that he would place himself at the heart of a national discussion about freedom of expression, civil liberties and First Amendment rights, but the essence of The Slants can be traced back to one particular afternoon at school in San Diego, Southern California, when, barely a teenager, he was victimised by bullies.
“They pushed me to the ground, started punching and kicking me, all while yelling out racial slurs. They kept calling me ‘Jap’ and ‘gook’ over and over again as they were kicking me. Finally I stopped and I yelled at them: ‘I’m a Chink. If you’re going to be racist at least do it properly.’ They just stopped and stared at me and they eventually walked away. And they left me alone for the rest of the year. That implanted something in me, into my DNA, that would probably be the birth of The Slants.”
There’s power in claiming an identity, saying: ‘You can’t use this against me. This belongs to me.’ When you are very deliberate and intentional about that, it can be very powerful
Impressed by the strong representation of Asian characters in Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 film Kill Bill: Volume 1, Tam chose a band name that allowed him to assert his heritage by upending a racial slur: “It showed me that there’s power in claiming an identity, saying: ‘You can’t use this against me. This belongs to me.’ When you are very deliberate and intentional about that, it can be very powerful.”
The label Tam gave to his band’s style of music, Chinatown dance rock, was also chosen for the strength of its connotations.
