Music

Canadian music community speaks out against Viet Cong's hurtful band name​

by Jesse Locke

Viet Cong are four white men from Calgary whose self-titled debut full-length album has been short-listed for the 2015 Polaris Music Prize. On Monday, September 21, they will be featured at the Polaris gala alongside, and in front of, many Canadian music industry luminaries. But complaints about their name being appropriative and racist have gained very little traction amongst that same music community.

These words come from April Aliermo in an impassioned and entirely necessary article for Exclaim titled Not Yours to Play With: Why Viet Cong’s Name Offends.

As a member of the bands Hooded Fang and Phèdre, Aliermo shares many close connections with the members of the Calgary group, but is not afraid to speak out on the problems with their name. Even more importantly, she includes the voices of people directly or indirectly affected by the real-life horrors of the Viet Cong and the Vietnam War. Their stories hammer home the countless ways in which the band’s cherry-picking of historical imagery with no political agenda followed by “flippant non-apologies” dismisses all of those who have already spoken up.

The Vietnam War only ended 40 years ago. The Vietnamese diaspora is still dealing with the aftermath of this war and the Viet Cong. It doesn’t matter if the band’s music is good or if they are nice guys; people who organize our concerts and who attend our shows are deeply hurt and affected by these young men naming themselves Viet Cong. While nobody is getting beat up or visibly excluded, there are several other kinds of racism happening here. Instead of trying to exercise a little bit of empathy, a lot of people are quick to make “intellectual,” derailing arguments. These guys can name themselves whatever they want, but they should know that by ignoring a marginalized group of people and taking something that isn’t theirs to take, they are ultimately excluding people because of race.

As someone who has previously written about Viet Cong without addressing their name, shared a stage with the band, and considers the members my friends, I have been hypocritical and completely complicit. Aliermo’s article shines a clear spotlight on the ways these non-actions and lack of critical thinking continue to perpetuate a culture of discrimination. She calls it an “annoying task” and “not her job to educate others on racism.”

This is true, but it still offers a lifeline to anyone willing to gain some much-needed understanding and hopefully snap themselves out of a bubble. Even if they admit to their naivety and had no intentions to “trivialize the atrocities or violence that occurred on both sides of the Vietnam war”, their continued use of the name Viet Cong is irresponsible and hurtful. I’m a big fan of their music along with many of their previous projects, and want them to continue to succeed. However, I’m going on record here that they need to take some simple action.

To Matt, Mike, Monty, and Danny: Please just change your damn band name already.