In a lecture-performance on Willamette’s Salem campus about Asian American identity, art, and free speech, members of Portland-based rock band The Slants blended live music with the behind-the-scenes story of how they brought a landmark case to the U.S. Supreme Court — and changed free speech and trademark rights in the process.
The campus event was the result of two years of planning by Professor of Chinese Juwen Zhang, who met Slants guitarist Joe X. Jiang through community events and interviewed him for his podcast “Yellow and Brown Tales: Asian American Folklife Today.”
“I planned to invite the band to our campus to bring some awareness of not only this particular case, but the broad history of Asian Americans in the United States,” Zhang said. “I have talked about the case in my classes, and students were passionately interested in the whole story.”
Turning stereotypes upside down
Through music and storytelling, band founder Simon Tam narrated his formative experiences with bullying and stereotypes of Asian Americans in popular culture. When he founded his band, Tam chose the name The Slants — a play on a disparaging term used against people of Asian descent — to reclaim a word that had been used against him growing up.
“I thought, what if we could take it, flip it upside down, and reinject new meaning into it? Instead of making it a banner of embarrassment, make it one of empowerment,” Tam said during the event.
Tam tried to trademark the band’s name, but his application was denied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on the basis that the name would be offensive. That decision by the U.S. government turned into years of litigation, putting Tam and his band at the center of a debate over free speech and cultural re-appropriation. Suddenly Tam faced the question of whether he could legally reclaim a term used against his community.
“People said that we were this band that turned stereotypes upside down,” Tam said to the audience assembled in Willamette’s Cone Chapel. “We had to fight back.”
After years of fighting, The Slants prevailed at the U.S. Supreme Court in a unanimous decision upholding The Slants’ right to protect their name. Students, faculty, and community members left the event inspired by a story of using your voice to make change.
“Out of all the presentations I’ve seen in 26 years at Willamette, that was definitely one of the very best,” Professor of Global Cultural Studies Peter Wogan told Zhang after the event. “Their story is incredibly important and inspirational.”
