Allied Media Conference: Vincent Chin: Lessons of Being the 'Othe...

The amazing DAY Project presents a workshop on the Vincent Chin case at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit today.

Allied Media Conference: Vincent Chin: Lessons of Being the 'Other'

Should Mark Wahlberg Be Pardoned for 1988 Assault? - NBC News.com

Asian Americans respond to Mark Wahlberg's application for pardon and 1988 court documents say race did have something to do with it. My article for NBC News Asian America.

But his assault conviction was accompanied by another, for contempt for court. That stemmed from a series of attacks he committed two years earlier, chasing and hurling rocks and racial epithets at African-American school children. A court prohibited him from assaulting, threatening, or intimidating anyone because of race or national origin; the 1988 investigation found him in violation of the order, meaning the court believed race did play a role in the attacks on Lam and Trinh.

Should Mark Wahlberg Be Pardoned for 1988 Assault? - NBC News.com

Vincent Chin: Some Lessons and Legacies | Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

From Chris Fan at Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics, 2012:

What we can confidently say is this: nuance would not have saved Vincent Chin. The violence Ebens inflicted on Chin was a fatal performance of how racialization always works. Indeed, the tragedy of Chin’s death is not that Ebens was mistaken. On the contrary, Ebens and Nitz made Chin Japanese. The lesson of racialization that Chin’s murder makes so utterly clear is that race doesn’t exist outside the dynamics of power and violence.

This brings me to something that has always bothered me about narrations of Chin’s murder that has to do with this point about race and power. Nearly every account of the events of June 19 mentions Ebens’ misidentification of Chin’s ethnicity. This perplexes me not only because it is so dramatically beside the point, but also because it suggests that had Ebens known the truth of Chin’s race (whatever that would mean), things might have turned out differently. Chin might still be with us. He might have married his fiancée Vicki Wong, and he might have lived into ripe old age, as Ebens has. (Nitz was killed in a motorcycle accident.) The very premise of such a claim undermines the theories of racialization and power undergirding the Asian American movement.

And yet something about this narrative convention does make sense. The necessity of calling Ebens' attribution a mistake betrays a specific ideological desire. Lurking behind the coalitional power of the Asian American label is the promise that its efficacy will one day obsolesce, and on the heels of that glorious moment, the content of the ethnicities it strategically held together would be redeemed in a kind of multicultural Utopia.

It’s a beautiful idea. An inspirational one. But the fundamental question it poses is extremely difficult to contend with: Can we construct our own racial identity?

Because race never belongs exclusively to the oppressed or the oppressor, the answer can only be a brutish "no." I'd argue, however, that one of the central legacies of Chin’s murder is that sometimes impossibility must be forced into the realm of possibility. If Chin's death and Kaufman's decision gave birth to the impossible community of Asian America, then our task now is to use all the tools at our disposal -- cultural, legal, social -- to brutishly wrench that "no" into a determined "yes." If we owe Chin anything, we owe him that.

- See more at: http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archive/2012/06/vincent-chin-some-lessons-and-legacies#sthash.NOao4dKu.dpuf

Vincent Chin: Some Lessons and Legacies | Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

Remembering the significance of the Vincent Chin case and how we keep carrying it forward:

Remembering the significance of the Vincent Chin case and how we keep carrying it forward, by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang at the State Bar of Michigan Legal 34th Milestone, 2009:

Key to this awareness and mobilization was education and media coverage--education of the Asian American community about their rights in America, education of the general public about what Asian Americans are really like, education of the legal community about whether or not Asian Americans are even covered by civil rights laws, education of elected officials about the impact of racially suggestive campaigns directed against Asian imports. Without this national mobilization, and national and international media attention, there never would have been a federal hate crime trial, and we would have been left with only Mrs. Chin's words:

"What kind of law is this? What kind of justice? This happened because my son is Chinese. If two Chinese killed a white person, they must go to jail, maybe for their whole lives & Some thing is wrong with this country."

Since then, the history of the Vincent Chin case has become a staple in Asian American Studies, Ethnic Studies, American Cultures, and law courses around the country. The Academy Award winning documentary film by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Pena, Who Killed Vincent Chin? has been shown to generations of college students. There have been remembrance events--vigils, dinners, conferences, poetry slams--organized around the country on the 10th, 20th, and 25th year anniversaries of Vincent Chin's death. Now there is a new documentary film produced by Asian Pacific Americans for Progress, Vincent Who? about how too many college students--who at this point are all born after 1982--do not know about this case or its importance, even as they take being Asian American and being a part of Asian American clubs and communities for granted.

Published at Harvard Kennedy School Asian American Policy Review, 2010: isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic855678.files/2010 - AAPR.pdf

Also here at 5:48 mark Frances Kai-Hwa Wang on Role of the Media in Vincent Chin Case State Bar of Michigan Legal Milestone - YouTube At 5:48 Mark

Asian American Journalists Association – Vincent Chin Memorial Scholarship

 From the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA):

In honor of Chin and thanks to the generosity of Joe Grimm, a former newsroom recruiter and staff development editor for the Detroit Free-Press, the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) has established a college scholarship. This scholarship rewards an accomplished, community-minded student journalist for an insightful, articulate essay related to Chin and his legacy.

Essays due May 9, 2014.

Asian American Journalists Association – Vincent Chin Memorial Scholarship

Gotta Serve Somebody: Bob Dylan Hails Asian Sweatshops In Bizarre Super Bowl Ad

“Let Asia assemble your phone…We will build your car." -Bob Dylan, in a Chrysler commercial aired during the Superbowl.

I love Detroit, but remember what happened the last time this sort of message was hailed.

Gotta Serve Somebody: Bob Dylan Hails Asian Sweatshops In Bizarre Super Bowl Ad

"Highly Skilled Workers Sought In Rust Belt - Is Immigration the Answer?" | Corp July/August 2013

Frances Kai-Hwa Wang channeling Mee Moua in this article on immigration issues in Michigan, "Highly Skilled Workers Sought In Rust Belt - Is Immigration the Answer?" pp 28-32.

Corp July/August 2013

About APIA-Vote Michigan

If you missed  the APIA-Vote Michigan Third Annual Dinner July 27th, you can still catch up with APIAVote-Michigan's Theresa Tran's great prezi!

http://prezi.com/aftmfojb3oit/apiavote-recap/

"From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: Commemorating the Vincent Chin Case."

"From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: Commemorating the Vincent Chin Case." by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang for Harvard Kennedy School Asian American Policy Review, 2010, p. 23.

isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic855678.files/2010 - AAPR.pdf

What people are saing at AAJA – Detroit, Michigan

What people are saying at the Asian American Journalists Association Convention about the Vincent Chin case. Check out #AAJA and @ACJ_AACJ on Twitter.com.



AAJA Voices 2011 – Detroit, Michigan



AAJA, Detroit remember Vincent Chin « AAJA Voices 2011 – Detroit, Michigan



Vincent Chin's beating death recalled at AAJA conference | Detroit Free Press | freep.com



Activist Boggs tells Asian-American journalists to 'grow our souls' | Detroit Free Press | freep.com



Selections from Thursday's Twitter feed:



jozjozjoz jozjozjoz

I've watched "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" at least a dozen times & I always cry when I see Lily Chin ask for justice for her son. #AAJA

6 hours ago



emilamok Emil Guillermo

"I wanted to make a film for 5th graders," Christine Choy on why she left out critical witness tampering facts in her Vincent Chin doc.#aaja

4 hours ago



ronlin Ron Lin, LA Times

Loved persistence of director Christine Choy in getting interview with Vincent Chin's killer. Choy congratulated him on his acquittal. #AAJA

4 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply



ronlin Ron Lin, LA Times

Choy told Chin's killer, You're going to be pissed if you don't talk to me for this documentary. A week later, he agreed to talk. #AAJA

5 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply



ronlin Ron Lin, LA Times

Then Choy accepted an offer to have drinks with him. She said yes, ordered a drink (vodka and gin, I think) and said ... #AAJA

5 hours ago



LoriMatsukawa Lori Matsukawa

Vincent Chin Case 29 Years Later: Director Christine Choy says journalists must tell Asian- American story "from beginning to end." #AAJA

5 hours ago



janetcho Janet Cho

.@AAJA attendees who skipped tonight's "Who Killed #VincentChin?" film missed an inspiring testimony on why media #diversity matters. #AAJA

5 hours ago



jozjozjoz jozjozjoz

Post-screening discussion w/ the Vincent Chin panel. Questions by @emilamok very enlightening.

6 hours ago



laarnid1 Laarni Rosca Dacanay

Just finished "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" screening & learned more about Asian-American civil rights -- impactful story #AAJA

6 hours ago



jozjozjoz jozjozjoz

"No civil rights trial happens w/o a massive amount of protest." --Helen Zia

6 hours ago



jozjozjoz jozjozjoz

Dunno if I can watch "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" again. Already wanna cry @ #AAJA Helen Zia, Christine Choy, Ti-Hua Chang, Roland Hwang panel

7 hours ago



DorisTruong Doris N. Truong

Just heard powerful words from childhood friend of Vincent Chin. Be courageous. Be yourself. #aaja

7 hours ago



Cr8tiveStream Creative Streamline

#aaja "Rembering Vincent Chin" "He swung the bat as if a baseball player would swing for a home run" witness said of how Chin was killed.

7 hours ago



laarnid1 Laarni Rosca Dacanay

At "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" doc screening and Q&A at #AAJA with Richard Lui from @msnbc yfrog.com/h8e8yfkkj

7 hours ago



jozjozjoz jozjozjoz

Ok. I am crying. Childhood friend of Vincent Chin remembers his memory and their friendship. #AAJA

8 hours ago



ronlin Ron Lin, LA Times

Director of "Who Killed Vincent Chin?", when pitching film idea, was asked, "How can you be objective if you are Asian American?" #AAJA

8 hours ago



ronlin Ron Lin, LA Times

In 1980s some members of Congress pulverized Japanese products over economic despair. Racial tension was high, Ti-Hua Chang says. #AAJA

8 hours ago



ronlin Ron Lin, LA Times

Vincent Chin struck in head with four blows by a baseball bat. Brain matter was found on sidewalk, Roland Hwang says. #AAJA

8 hours ago



emilamok Emil Guillermo

Attys for vincent chin family renew pursuit of civil suit award from Ronald Ebens who has surfaced in Nevada, 29 years after Chin murder.

8 hours ago



ronlin Ron Lin, LA Times

Helen Zia says part of reason why Detroit's Renaissance Center is so confusing is it was built during racial riots in the '60s. #AAJA

8 hours ago



ronlin Ron Lin, LA Times

Big story in 1980s: Asians do live in America, and, yes, they are American, says Helen Zia at #AAJA screening of "Who killed Vincent Chin?"

8 hours ago



aajanewyork AAJA New York

Robust attendance at the #aaja Vincent Chin panel!

9 hours ago



GilAsakawa Gil Asakawa

Detroit is a very nice city, what we're experiencing @ #AAJA convention. We've only known it via Michael Moore's & media perspective.

9 hours ago



emilamok Emil Guillermo

Grace Lee Boggs,96,has seen every movement come and go, says the next Am. revolution will be local, individualistic,spiritual.#aaja detroit

10 hours ago



bettymliu betty ming liu

vincent chin activist helen zia, revisits scene of the infamous detroit trial. #aaja http://twitpic.com/64h3il

13 hours ago



emilamok Emil Guillermo

#aaja Touring east side of Detroit after talking with Grace Lee Boggs. Vacant lots, yes. But also big houses, lots of hope still.

14 hours ago



emilamok Emil Guillermo

#aaja Grace Lee Boggs says it's time to end politics as we know it. Jobs are not the answer. Time for a humanistic revolution.

14 hours ago



fkwang Frances Kai-Hwa Wang

@ACJ_AACJ roland hwang and @emilamok called me so i could hear the #aaja panel on Vincent Chin remotely and i didn't hear my phone ring!

1 hour ago



ACJ_AACJ AmericanCitizensJust

Thanks all for coming to meet the American Citizens for Justice folks at #AAJA!! @fkwang sends her regrets.

1 hour ago



updated

chinese workers "excised" out of amc's transcontinental railroad drama hell on wheels | angry asian man

While Glenn Beck protests the new Hispanic/African American Spiderman, Asian American history continues to be written out of the storyline in this Civil War/Restoration/Western about the building of the Transcontinental Railroad...east of Utah? with no Chinese people? Amazing. via AngryAsianMan.com:



chinese workers "excised" out of amc's transcontinental railroad drama "hell on wheels" | angry asian man