Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.
What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.
In this episode, we welcome our good friend Paula Yoo, author of the young adult book From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement. We discuss the legacy of the case, the incredible amount of research that went into this book, and the importance of chronicling this story for younger generations.
And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.
Trump again uses racially insensitive term to describe coronavirus
No doubt because it went over so well last time, Donald Trump again referred to the novel coronavirus as "kung flu," eliciting laughter and wild cheers from a young crowd in Arizona on Tuesday. Because fuck you. Trump was listing the different names he has heard for the virus -- which, by the way has killed at least 119,000 Americans -- during a speech for the student Republican group Turning Point Action. This is racist. He knows it's racist. He simply does not give a shit.
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Trump Suspends Visas Allowing Foreigners to Work in the U.S.
On Monday, Trump temporarily suspended new work visas and barred hundreds of thousands of foreigners from seeking employment in the United States, part of a broad effort to limit the entry of immigrants into the country.In a sweeping order, which will be in place at least until the end of the year, Mr. Trump blocked visas for a wide variety of jobs, including those for computer programmers and other skilled workers who enter the country under the H-1B visa, as well as those for seasonal workers in the hospitality industry, students on work-study summer programs and au pairs who arrive under other auspices. Nobody should be surprised by any of this; he's doing exactly what he's been promising forever: ridding the country of immigrants, one by one.
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From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry
Wow. Author Paula Yoo just unveiled the cover of her upcoming book for young readers, From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement The book is a groundbreaking portrait of Vincent Chin and the murder case that took America's Asian American community to the streets in protest of injustice. From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry is a searing examination of the killing and the trial and verdicts that followed. When killers Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz pled guilty to manslaughter and received only a $3,000 fine and three years' probation, the lenient sentence sparked outrage in the Asian American community. This outrage galvanized the Asian American movement and paved the way for a new federal civil rights trial of the case. Extensively researched from court transcripts and interviews with key case witnesses -- many speaking for the first time -- Yoo has crafted a suspenseful, nuanced, and authoritative portrait of a pivotal moment in civil rights history, and a man who became a symbol against hatred and racism. From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry will hit shelves on April 6, 2021.
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Amazon Sets Mystery-Comedy ‘Nancy Wu Done It’
Amazon has picked up a very different kind of young adult series that immerses you in a YA novel -- literally. The new comedy series titled Nancy Wu Done It comes from writers and executive producers Kai Yu Wu and Jessica Henwick, and is described as a mashup of Pleasantville and Nancy Drew. The story follows a frustrated Asian American female YA author who suddenly finds herself transported into one of her own books. As a result, she must work with the titular character she created -- who she now hates -- to solve an unfinished mystery. This sounds awesome.
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Over the Moon
Check out the trailer for Netflix and Pearl Studios’ upcoming animated fe ature Over the Moon. Slated to release this fall, Over the Moon follows the story of a young girl who builds a rocket ship to the moon to prove the existence of a legendary Moon Goddess. Directed by animation legend Glen Keane and produced by Gennie Rim and Peilin Chou, the musical adventure stars the voices of Cathy Ang, Phillipa Soo, Ken Jeong, John Cho, Ruthie Ann Miles, Sandra Oh, Robert G. Chiu, Margaret Cho, and Kimiko Glenn.
Take it from Helen Zia, who would know: "I lived through the auto industry's collapse and the climate of misery and hate that led to Vincent Chin's killing. Those were horrific times -- but the train wreck from the hate and hysteria of this pandemic and global recession is coming and will be MUCH WORSE!" Also see Part 2.
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Don't Be Racist
Furthermore, take it from Patrick Epino, who also connects the dots between "Chinese Virus" and Vincent Chin.
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Nail Salon Owners Organize Medical Supply Drive
Let's give some props where they are due. In San Mateo, California, a group of women -- a stay-at-home mother of three, and two nail salon owners -- organized a donation drive to help health careworkers who say they're short on protective gear. In a matter of days, they collected nearly 3,000 masks, 59,450 pairs of gloves and other medical supplies to be given to health care workers.
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House of Woo is Making Face Masks in the Fight Against the Coronavirus
And in Los Angeles, House of Woo has joined the fight against the coronavirus. Owner Staci Woo has turned the company's resources from making environmentally conscious clothing lines to making face masks to help slow the spread of COVID-19. "We've got the means, we've got the fabric, we've got the people, and people are needing the masks right now," Woo told ABC7.
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Woman Barters Baked Goods for Toilet Paper Amid Coronavirus Emergency
As you've probably heard, toilet paper is a little hard to come by these days, as shoppers hoard precious rolls amid the coronavirus emergency. It's especially problematic for the disabled. Brandi Frausto, who can't get around easily, was greeted with barren shelves in the paper goods aisle at her local grocery. So she took to the internet, and ended up bartering home-baked goods for a packet of toilet paper. Get it any way you can, folks.
Thirty-five years ago today in Detroit, four nights after being severely beaten in the head with a baseball bat, Vincent Chin died. The case would become a seminal rallying point for the Asian American community. And tonight, concerned community members plan to gather for a vigil outside the home of Chin's killer.
For those unfamiliar with the case: Chin was out at a strip club celebrating his bachelor party when he got into a fight with a couple of disgruntled auto industry workers, Ronald Evens and his stepson Michael Nitz. Witnesses say they heard Ebens yell "It's because of you little motherfuckers that we're out of work!" -- referring to U.S. auto jobs being lost to Japanese manufacturers. Vincent Chin was Chinese American.
The fight was broken up, but Ebens and Nitz weren't finished. They searched for Chin outside the club, tracked him down to a McDonald's and attacked him. Nitz held Chin in a bear hug while Evens repeatedly bludgeoned him with a baseball bat until his head cracked open. Vincent fell into a coma and died on June 23, 1982.
NPR's Morning Edition aired a Story Corps interview Vincent Chin's best friend, Gary Koivu, who talks about his lifelong friendship with Vincent and hauntingly recounts the night he witnessed his murder.
Next week marks the 35th anniversary of Vincent Chin's brutal, racist murder at the hands of two white autoworkers in Detroit -- a case that set off a pan-Asian, nation-wide movement for justice. Thirty-five years later, what is the legacy of Vincent Chin? The New York Public Library will be hosting a panel discussion, Vincent Chin: Dead or Alive?, examining the case, what has and has not changed since Chin's murder, as well as the current state of civic participation and advocacy in API communities.
It's happening Monday, June 19 in the Community Room at Chatham Square Library. Some more details:
This year marks the 35th anniversary of Vincent Chin's murder. If you're in Seattle, the Wing Luke Museum is revisiting the landmark case with a special screening of the seminal documentary Who Killed Vincent Chin?, followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Renee Tajima-Pena, Marsha Chien (Washington State Assistant Attorney General, Wing Luke Civil Rights Unit), Connie So (University of Washington American Ethnic Studies, Principal Lecturer) and Rich Stolz (OneAmerica, Executive Director).
It's happening Saturday, May 13 at the Wing Luke Museum. Here are some more details:
If you're in New York, you are invited to a screening of the acclaimed documentary Who Killed Vincent Chin? as part of the Chatham Square Library's Chinese in America Film Series. They'll be showing a 16mm print of the film with associate producer Nancy Tong in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.
The Academy Award-nominated film tells the story of the fatal 1982 beating of Vincent Chin in Detroit, and the ensuing civil rights battle that galvanized the Asian American community.
It's happening Saturday afternoon, December 17 at Chatham Square Library. Here are more details:
New digital series "Jubilee Project: Voices" gathers Asian Americans to answer a single question.
Do you know who Vincent Chin was? The hate crime murder of Vincent Chin is often cited as a rallying point for Asian American activism, but how many people know who he was and what happened to him?
The Jubilee Project's latest video installment of "Voices" for NBC Asian America gathered a group of Asian Americans -- including myself -- to talk about Vincent Chin. Some were intimately aware of what had happened to him, while others, unfortunately but not surprisingly, had never heard of the case at all.
The tragic beating death of Vincent Chin 30 years ago, breathed life into the modern Asian-American political movement. I am a child born in a world without Vincent Chin.
Published days before 2014's Asian American Heritage Month opens, Neal Rubin (@nealrubin_dn) of the The Detroit News (one of the city's conservative papers) has written one of the most bizarre, incoherent and irresponsible stories to-date on the Vincent Chin murder.
Vincent Chin's brutal death at the hands of Detroit auto workers Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz 32 years ago remains a watershed moment in Asian American history. Faced with the unmistakable evidence that Chin's killing was a racially motivated hate crime, Asian Americans across the nation united across ethnic boundaries to seek justice for Chin's murder. Despite these efforts, both killers were sentenced to no jail time and a minimal fine for their parts in Chin's death.
Under the headline "What we all assume we know about the Vincent Chin case probably isn't so", Rubin rejected the documented facts. Instead, he penned today an alternate history: a weird screed so sensationalized, incoherent, and libelous that it seems more appropriate for the pages of a tabloid magazine than a newspaper of any repute. In so doing, Rubin reopens for Asian Americans the painful memory of a traumatizing miscarriage of justice, and pours salt into the wound with unfounded hearsay.
To say that the Asian American community is outraged would be an understatement.
