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An open letter to Viet Cong: change your name already

I co-founded and run the DIY performance venue Double Double Land, where we have hosted hundreds of bands. Viet Cong asked if they could play a secret show at our space that would have happened this week, but I said no. Saying no to Viet Cong affected us financially, as we make very little money and often pay out of our own pocket to run the venue, and the show probably would’ve been a hit.

I said no because Viet Cong is racist toward Vietnamese people. Their name, which started as a racist joke, profits off of traumatic Vietnamese history. Many articles have been written about the significance of the name, but what’s remarkable now is their slowness to act and their continuing to show that they don’t take the issue seriously.

Over the past few months, I’ve followed the protests happening in several cities on their tour, and the way the band responds to Vietnamese protesters reaffirms their disregard for the experiences of racialized people.

A day after posting their public statement on September 19 saying they would change their name, writing “It’s not our fight” and “We don’t take any concerns about the name lightly,” they confronted me at the Polaris Prize gala to deny that their name deserves an apology at all. 

To Vietnamese protesters in Minneapolis they promised a written apology acknowledging their name is racist, which they never made. 

In Edmonton they stated, “We’ve been stripped of our name,” to cheering fans, and in the Seattle press they recited praise they’ve received for the name, saying “History is for everyone, and it’s still a debate.” 

To be clear, they still haven’t changed their name, and they’ve added additional shows and continue to promote and make a living from the name.

I am a first-generation Canadian half-Vietnamese man. My grandfather started Golden Turtle, the popular pho restaurant near Ossington and Dundas, after escaping Vietnam as a refugee. I have relatives who were killed by both sides in the war – American soldiers and Communist Vietnamese soldiers. 

When I brought the band-name issue to my mom and relatives who fled Vietnam in the late 60s, they explained that in Vietnam if a white person calls a Vietnamese person “Viet Cong,” “it’s like they’re calling you the N-word. It’s a derogatory slur – you know that, right?” 

A friend made a comparison to the Iraq war: it’s as if a band of white people from England called themselves “ragheads.” These are terms white people have used against people of colour in racist ways.

The band has even admitted that they chose the name because of a racist joke: a member mimicked a Viet Cong soldier holding a gun and someone said, “All you need is a rice paddy hat.” And that they were inspired by Hollywood movies in which Vietnamese people are villains.

They have also said the name suits them because their music evokes “darkness” and is “explosive” and “all over the place.” (One of their songs is literally called Death. Another is called Bunker Buster.) Through their brand, they pair images of war and death with Vietnamese people. Their name perpetuates the racist and dangerous concept that people of colour are always combatants in a war, either ready to kill or ready to die. 

Some people have defended the name by saying that the Viet Cong were “anti-imperialist” and therefore should be celebrated. This argument oversimplifies the reality of the Vietnam War. The protests against the band are not about communism versus capitalism but about the fact that white privilege continues to erase the lived experiences of people of colour who all over the world bear the brunt of the consequences of war.

This erasure is also perpetuated by the many articles and stories that have mostly ignored the voices of Vietnamese protesters who have led the #shutdownvietcong campaign. In most reports about the issue, offensiveness is discussed rather than racism. The CBC compared Viet Cong’s name to Dayglo Abortions. Canadaland compared it to a hypothetical band March for Stalin. Q compared it to the Decemberists and the Barenaked Ladies.  

What all of these discussions deflect attention from is the reality that people of colour are silenced and removed from their own history. Four white Canadian men and their self-proclaimed ignorance are the most visible project representing Vietnamese people.

The band Viet Cong continue to keep their name as long as it’s good for business. “The best you can do is present your case,” said my mom about the issue. “It will bring them more press. They don’t have to change it – they probably never will.”

A protest takes place ahead of the band’s show at Lee’s Palace (529 Bloor West), Saturday (December 5), 8 pm, in solidarity with #shutdownvietcong #solongvietcong protests in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland and Oberlin. 

music@nowtoronto.com | @nowtoronto

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