The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will present a screening of the documentary Vincent Who? on September 27. From the film's official site:
In 1982, at the height of anti-Japanese sentiments arising from massive layoffs in the auto industry, a Chinese-American named Vincent Chin was murdered in Detroit by two white autoworkers. Chin's killers, however, got off with a $3,000 fine and 3 years probation, but no jail time. Outraged by this injustice, Asian Americans around the country united for the first time across ethnic and socioeconomic lines to form a pan-Asian identity and civil rights movement.It will be followed by a Q-and-A session with the film's producer. The event will be held from 7:00 pm in the William Pitt Union (map) Dining Room A, safety permitting, or online via Zoom; it's free and open to the public, though registration is required.
Among its significant outcomes, the movement led to the historic broadening of federal civil rights protection to include all people in America regardless of immigrant status or ethnicity.
VINCENT WHO? explores this important legacy through interviews with the key players at the time as well as a whole new generation of activists whose lives were impacted by Vincent Chin. It also looks at the case in relation to the larger narrative of Asian American history, in such events as Chinese Exclusion, Japanese American Internment in WWII, the 1992 L.A. Riots, anti-Asian hate crimes, and post-9/11 racial profiling.
Ultimately, VINCENT WHO? asks how far Asian Americans have come since the case and how far they have yet to go.
