Book review: He named his band the Slants to reclaim a slur. Not everyone approved.
By Diana Michele Yap May 16 at 9:00 AM In middle school, Simon Tam was jumped by four older kids on the playground. They hit him on the back of his head with a basketball, then pushed him down hard into loose gravel. One of them threw sand at his face.
Tam is still standing up for his principles. His compelling memoir, “Slanted: How an Asian American Troublemaker Took on the Supreme Court,” is about keeping true to his punk-rock heart and making history through an eight-year fight to get a trademark registration from the government for his all-Asian American band’s name, the Slants. “Nobody starts a band thinking that they’re going to go to the Supreme Court,” he writes.
With a catchy Depeche Mode-inspired sound, the Slants sing politically pointed lyrics and are known for their community activism. In 2012, in a Portland, Ore., coffee shop, a rep from a major-label record company presented Tam with a $4 million offer. But there was a hitch: He must replace the lead singer with someone white.
“No one. Not a single person,” his friend said. “But they did cite UrbanDictionary.com, and there are photos of Miley Cyrus pulling her eyes back in a slant-eye gesture.”
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