A promoter at Oberlin College in Ohio has cancelled Viet Cong's upcoming concert date on campus because of the "problematic nature" of the band's name.
Promoter Ivan Krasnow issued a statement over the weekend to explain why he cancelled the show on Oberlin's Facebook page, which Pitchfork found and wrote about.
"As the person behind booking this band, I would first and foremost like to apologize on both my and my booking organization’s behalf for inviting a band with a name that deeply offends and hurts Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American communities, both in Oberlin and beyond."
Krasnov went into detail about the college's history of protest during the Vietnam war, and it's legacy of social justice.
"To allow a band called “Viet Cong” to play a show and make money at Oberlin College would be in complete disregard of Oberlin’s radical history and of the values it professes to uphold."
The Facebook post points to an interview the band did with Impose Magazine where the band acknowledges the controversial nature of their name but calls it "just a band name for us."
Krasnov added, "The fact that the band openly acknowledges their problematic name, yet fails to change it or do anything about it, highlights this blatantly appropriative move, reinforcing a tradition of American (and Western) orientalism and appropriation."
The Calgary band was scheduled to perform at Oberlin's Dionysus Discotheque on March 14.
