A local film group will show “Vincent Who?” on Aug. 21 in remembrance of a Chinese-American man murdered in Detroit 30 years ago.

Vincent Chin was beaten to death by Ronald Ebens, a Chrysler plant supervisor, and his stepson, Michael Nitz, after layoffs in the auto industry attributed to Japan’s success. The two were put on probation and received a $3,000 fine with no jail time.

“This kind of stirred [Asian Americans] up and it started a movement that’s important to remember,” said Errol Lam, one of the organizers and a member of the Media Decompression Collective Toledo.

The 2009 film examines the case’s legacy and its impact on future generations. It also looks at the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese American Internment in World War II, the 1992 L.A. Riots, anti-Asian hate crimes and racial profiling after Sept. 11, 2001.

Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, a journalist and teacher of Asian Pacific American History and the Law at the University of Michigan, and Roland Hwang, president of the Organization of Chinese Americans when Chin was murdered, will lead a discussion after the movie.

“They’re coming to add perspective to this,” Lam said. “It’s basically to remember what happened to Asian Americans. A lot of people don’t know … even now these killings are almost everyday in a sense.”

The showing and discussion are 7-9 p.m. Aug. 21 at Third Space, 137 N. Michigan St. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged to cover the speakers’ travel costs.

Tags: "Vincent Who?", Brigitta Burks, documentary, Errol Lam, Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, Media Decompression Collective Toledo, Michael Nitz, racism, Robert Ebens, Ronald Hwang, Third Space, Vincent Chin

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 16th, 2012 at 11:48 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Film.
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An interesting study made news lately that found that persons of lower general intelligence and who had lower cognitive abilities were less tolerant to groups that were different than them, and more susceptible to right-wing ideologies of prejudice, intolerance and racism.

This study was done adjusting for socioeconomic and educational backgrounds in both the U.K. and the U.S. by Gordon Hodson and Michael A. Busseri of Brock University in Canada and was reported by the Association for Psychological Science. The article was titled “Bright Minds and Dark Attitudes: Lower Cognitive Ability Predicts Greater Prejudice Through Right-Wing Ideology and Low Intergroup Contact.” This shines a light for me anyhow, on how so many voters who don’t seem to have much going for them on the economic front can be continually persuaded to vote against their own best interests. This doesn’t mean, of course, that all conservatives are stupid, or conversely, that all liberals are smart. And before you go off on the tirades that I’m sure are to follow this last paragraph, read the study. It is very well documented and takes into account most, if not all, factors that could have slanted such a study. It also helps to explain a lot of the character assassination and loopy factoids that seem to be readily believed by the guys and gals that wear the three cornered hats and carry the signs at rallies, and that carry the unread Constitutions in their pockets. The conservative dogma appeals to them because of its rigid adherence to the status quo and resistance to change and open-mindedness and tolerance of others. Conservative hucksters like Dick Armey, Grover Norquist, the Koch Brothers, Rush, Glenn and myriad Fox News talking heads have figured out how to mine the minds of these people who don’t care to or don’t have the wherewithal to find out the truth for themselves. They sell fear, of those unlike themselves, of change, and a medicine show flummery that if only the conservatives can take total control, they will be safe. Mitch Daniels gave a prime example in his GOP answer to the State of the Union address, when he said we are a nation of Haves and Soon to Haves. After 40 years of a growing disparity between the rich elite 1 percent and the rest of us, how could anyone believe that the rest of us are Soon to Haves? The GOP and their enablers have buffaloed a sizable portion of the population into believing that they’re looking out for your best interests, because your interests are the same as theirs! It hasn’t worked ever before in the history of this country, or in the world, for that matter, and it won’t work now.

Fortunately, this cognitive dissonance is not represented by a majority of the population in this country. The GOP has been overstepping in much of the country since their resurgence, under false pretenses, I might add, and has been playing a dangerous game politically, trying to keep all the balls in the air. They aren’t up to the task, as evident by their slate of presidential candidates. They’ve used the usual sleight of hand to push an agenda that bears no resemblance to the issues they ran on in 2010, and managed to honk off a lot of people, including a lot of their supporters in a ham-handed grab for power. David Frum, the Bushie who first coined the phrase Axis of Evil, said in a piece in the NY Times: “Backed by their own wing of the book publishing industry and supported by think tanks that increasingly function as public relations agencies, conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics.” Mike Lofgren, a former GOP Senate staffer and operative for 28 years also has been sounding the alarm. He said, “It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological, authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe.” Like, fascism maybe? And these guys are both long-time GOP operatives, not some commie liberal bloggers. If they’re worried, don’t you think we all should be? The thing that worries me the most though is that the Democrats and independents who are worried and mad won’t bother to vote. Apathy could very well be the last gasp of democracy in this country before wealth takes total control.

Vote. No matter how bad you think things are now, they could be infinitely worse.

Tags: David Frum, Don Burnard, Gordon Hodson, intelligence, Michael A. Busseri, Mike Lofgren, racism, Republican Party, The Hot Corner, “Bright Minds and Dark Attitudes: Lower Cognitive Ability Predicts Greater Prejudice Through Right-Wing Ideology and Low Intergroup Contact”

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2012 at 7:18 am and is filed under Opinion, The Hot Corner.
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The “Harry Potter” series deals directly with the dangers of prejudice and racism, so it was fitting to be confronted with those issues during a screening of the latest “Potter” movie.

During the late 1990s, I worked on assignment in San Jose, Calif. During that era, I was long-distance romancing my eventual wife, Shannon, who lived in Ann Arbor. Part of bridging that continental gap was spending a lot of late nights on the phone.

Shannon battled mild insomnia in those days, and I battled cross-country home sickness. One of our solutions was for me to read to her each night until she was ready to sleep. It was on her suggestion in that summer of 1999 that I purchased a copy of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

It was a natural extension of our admiration for the book series to see the “Potter” movies as each one was released.

Taking the adventure to its extreme, we arranged a safe haven for our young boys and drove to the Rave Motion Pictures theater at Levis Commons for the July 15 midnight premiere. Traveling with friends who have been equally invested in the series, we arrived to find all 12 screens showing the film, and all 12 screens sold out or close to it. Hundreds of fans filled the lobby, chattering excitedly and bustling with anticipation. Many fans (who at one point probably smirked at fans who lined up in costumes for “Star Wars” movies) were dressed as their favorite character.

There were great bearded Hagrids, scores of Harrys wearing black robes and black circular glasses, and several silver-bearded Dumbledores. The creativity on display was impressive. One fan, dressed as Azkaban prisoner Sirius Black, wore the faded jail fatigues and had the full set of markings “tattooed” on his chest. I assume those quotes are required. There were sexy and demented Bellatrix clones, scary and silent Death Eaters and Dementors and at least one person dressed as a winged Golden Snitch.

With about 30 minutes before showtime, two of us walked to the concession stand. Waiting in the lengthy line gave us another opportunity to admire the “Potter” fans who had invested time and energy into dressing up to mark the end of the 10-year film series. It was exciting and fun, a moment free of real-world politics and pressures.

Then a young man walked by, dressed in Hogwarts wizard robes. He was tall, with brown hair and a quick gait.

His white face was smeared black.

I openly stared as he crossed the lobby, stunned to see someone, even in the context of a celebration and costume ball, wearing blackface. I caught the eye of my friend, who was similarly caught off guard by the sight.

It surprised me — stunned me, really — that anyone in 2011 could walk around in public in blackface and think it’s OK. We’re not talking about some satirical or political fourth wall-breaking performance art. It was just one kid at the movies, dressed in costume with some kind of black makeup or paint smeared over his face.

Blackface has a long history as a tool for demeaning and humiliating black people; I do not see any excuses that transcend that context.

There are not a lot of black characters in the “Harry Potter” books and movies, which seems endemic to epic fantasy stories. The “Star Wars” movies employed exactly one prominent black actor for each of its trilogies (Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian in the Original Trilogy, Samuel L. Jackson as Jedi Mace Windu in the Prequel Trilogy). The “Lord of the Rings” movies make the “Star Wars” movies look like a Tyler Perry project. “Avatar,” employed black actors for its aliens but not for its scientists or military leaders.

“Potter” has Lee Jordan, who fights alongside the good-guy wizards, and Dean Thomas, who is more visible than Jordan but mainly footnotes himself as a boyfriend of Ginny Weasley, who eventually falls for Harry Potter. It has Kingsley Shacklebolt, a powerful wizard who rises to a prominent leadership role. There is one young black woman, Angelina Johnson, who dates the supporting character Fred Weasley (and according to fan websites, marries his brother George after Fred dies in battle. This skin-color exposition on the Weasley family’s prejudice-free approach to life is a rare bit of narrative clumsiness on Rowling’s part).

The young man in blackface must have been dressed as Dean Thomas, as he lacked Lee Jordan’s dreadlocks and Angelina Johnson’s uterus (my assumption).

While seeing him did not completely sour my evening, his offensive and tasteless choice has resonated. Worst-case scenario, it was an excuse for a mocking, racist act of immaturity. At best, it was an insensitive display of ignorance and immaturity. Or maybe he was just a historical re-enactor.

I wonder if he left his parents’ home with the blackface on, or if he applied it when safely out of his parents’ sight. I also wonder if he would have employed the same mischievous strut at another theater; not just the mostly white safe zone in Perrysburg, but maybe at Westfield, where he would have been far more likely to face real-life black people.

If he had been seen in blackface at Westfield, it would have taken a lot more than magic words and phrases to prevent him from learning just how offensive his actions were.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Email him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Angelina Johnson, Avatar, Billy Dee Williams, blackface, Dean Thomas, Fred Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Lando Calrissian, Lee Jordan, Levis Commons, Lighting The Fuse, Lord of the Rings, Michael S. Miller, racism, Rave Motion Pictures, Star Wars, Westfield

This entry was posted on Friday, July 22nd, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under Lighting The Fuse, Opinion.
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