KI co-sponsors Aug. 11 Vincent Chin event at Detroit AAJA conference

Join the Asian American Journalists Association in community partnership with the Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education and the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice for an evening of seasoned dialogue and a rare screening of the 1987 Academy Award-nominated documentary, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?”. The program will revisit what happened in 1982, explore some of the issues that spawned an Asian American civil rights movement, and how Chin’s case has served as a lesson that transcends Asian American communities today. In 1982 Vincent Chin was a Chinese American beaten to death in the Detroit, Michigan enclave of Highland Park. The murder generated public outrage over the lenient sentencing of the two men who killed him–Chrysler plant superintendent Ronald Ebens and his stepson, Michael Nitz. Both were acquitted of all charges in the federal case and received only three years probation in the state trial. The murder took place during a climate of intense anti-Asian sentiment directed at the Japanese who were blamed for taking jobs from American workers. Many of the layoffs in Detroit’s auto industry, including Nitz’s in 1979, had been due to the increasing market share of Japanese automakers, leading to allegations that Chin, received racially charged comments before his death. This panel/film screening is a community program offered by AAJA and is free and open to the public. IN-KIND SPONSORS FILMAKERS LIBRARY & SWANK AV. For more information, click here.