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Simon S. Tam

Goodreads Author

Born

in San Diego, CA, The United States

Website

http://www.simontam.org

Twitter

SimonTheTam

Genre

Memoir, Nonfiction, Music

Member Since

October 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/simontam

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Simon Tam believes that apathy is not compatible with love. His passion for the intersection of arts and activism is evident in all of his work, from his music to his writing. He believes in changing the culture by transforming systems and fighting for equity.

Simon may best be known for winning a landmark case in 2017 that helped expand civil liberties for minorities, unanimously, at the Supreme Court of the United States (Matal v. Tam). He is the founder and bassist of The Slants, one of the first all-Asian American dance rock bands in the world, and also leads The Slants Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides resources and mentorship for artists that incorporate activism into their work.

As a speaker, Tam has appeared at thousa Simon Tam believes that apathy is not compatible with love. His passion for the intersection of arts and activism is evident in all of his work, from his music to his writing. He believes in changing the culture by transforming systems and fighting for equity.

Simon may best be known for winning a landmark case in 2017 that helped expand civil liberties for minorities, unanimously, at the Supreme Court of the United States (Matal v. Tam). He is the founder and bassist of The Slants, one of the first all-Asian American dance rock bands in the world, and also leads The Slants Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides resources and mentorship for artists that incorporate activism into their work.

As a speaker, Tam has appeared at thousands of events across four continents, and is a regular at key industry events such as TEDx, SXSW, and INTA. Each year he speaks to Fortune 500 companies, universities, and many of the world's top leaders in law, entertainment, and education. He has consulted world leaders and major organizations on policies related to equity, diversity, and inclusion. In 2016, Simon joined President Barack Obama, George Takei, Jeremy Lin, and other celebrities in the #ActToChange campaign to fight bullying.

Simon's work has been highlighted media features around the world, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. He has earned many accolades for his work, including: The Mark T. Banner award from the American Bar Association, the Hugh M Hefner First Amendment Award, Milestone Case of the Year from Managing IP Magazine, the Ovation Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Distinguished Alum Award from Marylhurst University.

In 2019, he published his memoir, "Slanted: How an Asian American Troublemaker Took on the Supreme Court." It was named One of the Best Books on the Constitution of All Time by BookAuthority and won an award for Best Autobiography/Memoir from the Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Simon Tam continues to fight for justice by serving on multiple nonprofit boards, developing innovative solutions to social problems, and sharing a message of radical optimism. ...more

186 posts
Simon S. Tam's Blog

National Loving Day

It’s often very difficult to truly appreciate what we have and how much was sacrificed in order to enjoy those gifts. Today is a good reminder of that. We now celebrate it as National Loving Day because of one very brave couple.

In early 1900s, the United States passed a number of anti-miscegenation laws in order to preserve racial purity. These were laws that criminalized interracial marriage and

Combine Editions
Simon S. Tam’s books

Average rating: 3.93 · 75 ratings · 12 reviews · 3 distinct works

	Slanted: How an Asian American Troublemaker Took on the Supreme Court by Simon Tam, Simon S. Tam (Goodreads Author) 4.17 avg rating — 42 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How to Get Sponsorships and Endorsements 3.63 avg rating — 32 ratings — published 2012 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Music Business Hacks: The Daily Habits of the Self-Made Musician really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2014 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

Quotes by Simon S. Tam (?)

“Your uniqueness is your greatest strength, not how well you emulate others.”
― Simon S. Tam

tags: apa, api, asian, asian-american, branding, business, charity, marketing, marketing-expert, music, music-industry, musician, nonprofit, social-media

14 likes

“I believe that reappropriation can be a powerful tool for creating social change. Sometimes, things like irony, satire, or humor are more effective in getting at difficult truths or concepts like white privilege, orientalism, and the exoticization of culture.”
― Simon S. Tam

tags: asian, asian-american, orientalism, race, racial-justice, reappropriation, social-change, social-justice, the-slants

8 likes

“Why does a government agency that has no connection with my community have the right to dictate what is appropriate for it?”
― Simon S. Tam

tags: government-corruption, race, racism, social-justice, systemic-racism

6 likes

See all Simon S. Tam's quotes »

Simon’s Quotes

“Your uniqueness is your greatest strength, not how well you emulate others.”
― Simon S. Tam

tags: apa, api, asian, asian-american, branding, business, charity, marketing, marketing-expert, music, music-industry, musician, nonprofit, social-media

14 likes

“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend”
― Albert Camus

tags: attributed-no-source, friends, friendship, misattributed-albert-camus

93373 likes

“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”
― Albert Camus

tags: human-nature, man, mankind, philosophy

10715 likes

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
― Albert Camus

tags: seasons, strength, trial, triumph

11181 likes

“There are perhaps many causes worth dying for, but to me, certainly, there are none worth killing for.”
― Albert Dietrich, Army GI, Pacifist CO: The World War II Letters of Frank Dietrich and Albert Dietrich