Who Killed Vincent Chin?
(Film News Now Foundation, Inc., 1988, 86 Minutes)

Review by Dr. Jeff Mio, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Film Relevance and Connection to the Text
This film is most related to Chapter 14-Intergroup Relations and Multiculturalism. However, it also has relevance to Chapters 3 (The Self in Culture), 4 (Attitudes), 5 (Attributions), 10 (Prejudice), 11 (Aggression), and 15 (Conflict Resolution, the Law, and the Developing World).

Summary/Synopsis
This is a documentary film about the real-life murder of Vincent Chin, a Detroit automobile design engineer in 1982, a period when unemployment was especially high around the Detroit area. He was killed after a barroom fight by two laid-off autoworkers who later admitted to the murder. However, an overworked judge sentenced these two men to a $3,000 fine and three years' probation without any jail time. He made this judgment without hearing from witnesses to the barroom fight and two police officers who witnessed the actual slaying of Chin with a baseball bat. The sentence outraged the Asian community, and it pressed for the case to be heard by the federal court as a civil rights violation. The first civil rights trial found the two men guilty, but they appealed to a district court in Cincinnati in 1987, which was the last court trial.

This documentary film shows interviews with the perpetrators, Vincent Chin's mother, Chin's best friend, witnesses, the first judge, community leaders, and court reporters. It also recreates the incidents at the bar and on the street where Vincent Chin was killed. Additionally, it shows contemporaneous media coverage of the trial process, the media's coverage of people's anger at foreign car manufacturers, and commercials that aired at the time of the killing. Thus, the film recreated the context within which the murder took place.

Discussion Questions
  1. What stereotypes were depicted in the film?

  2. Why was the protest by the Asian community so out of character to the community?

  3. How was it that the judge came up with his sentence? When confronted with the facts of the case, was the judge's explanation for his sentence credible? Why or why not?

  4. Do you believe that Vincent Chin's civil rights were violated? Why or why not?

Student Assignment Suggestions
  1. Obtain permission from another instructor to commit a "crime" in class. Ask students to serve as eyewitnesses and write down as much as they recall about the crime. Discuss different perceptions.

  2. Have students connect the differing perceptions of the participants to issues related to social cognition.

  3. Have students discuss how context played a role in the events in the film.

  4. Have students discuss the media's role in informing the public vs. "fanning the flames" of racial division.

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