Renee Tajima-Pena

Renee Tajima-Pena

Open Letter to the Biden Campaign on “Unprepared”

Open Letter to the Biden Campaign on “Unprepared” was released May 12 2020.

":Our demands: The country’s greatest priority at this moment is to beat the COVID-19 crisis, and this requires embracing principles of antiracist solidarity and international cooperation. The Biden campaign can and should beat Trump and the GOP with a message centered on our real public health needs and the progressive values that are required to meet those needs. The “Unprepared” ad must be taken down, and all campaign messaging that fuels anti-Asian racism and China-bashing must end. We refuse to allow the Biden campaign to sacrifice our dignity in the name of political expediency."

Signatories included Renee Tajima-Pena, Film maker and professor UCLA.

"Vincent Who?"

In 1982, Vincent Chin was brutally murdered in Detroit "at the height of anti-Japanese sentiment". The judge ruled it a case of manslaughter and the two killers, both autoworkers, never served a day in jail.

The case became a cause celebre for the Communist Workers Party.

A film about the case "Vincent Who?" was released in 2008, dealing with impact the case had had on activists at the time.

More than twenty-five years later, that case remains a touchstone in the struggle for civil rights and the advancement of the Asian American community. In this new documentary, VINCENT WHO?, we take a quick look back at the case, but more importantly we examine the effects the case had on the leading community activists of today and the future leaders of tomorrow.

Interviewees and speakers included Helen Zia (leading activist during the Chin case), Stewart Kwoh (Founder & Executive Director, Asian Pacific American Legal Center), Judy Chu (Chair, California State Board of Equalization), Mike Eng (California State Assemblyman), Renee Tajima-Pena (Producer & Director, WHO KILLED VINCENT CHIN?), Frank Wu (Dean, Wayne State University Law School), Janet Yang (Producer, THE JOY LUCK CLUB), Justin Lin (Director, BETTER LUCK TOMORROW), Robin Toma (Executive Director, Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations), Nhung Truong (District Representative, Office of Congressman Adam Schiff), Sejal Patel (Activist, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy), Ben de Guzman (National Campaign Coordinator, National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity).

"Who Killed Vincent Chin?" event

Fall 2006/Spring 2007 - Asian Pacific Americans for Progress begins discussing ways to commemorate the upcoming 25th anniversary of the murder of Vincent Chin. The Los Angeles chapter (including producers Curtis Chin, Preeti Kulkarni and Vivian Hao) decides to organize a screening of the documentary "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" along with a panel discussion on the status of Asian American empowerment.

Board of Equalization member Judy Chu is asked to provide a recap of the case. Other panelists include Stewart Kwoh, Robin Toma, Hamid Khan and Renee Tajima-Pena.

East Wind

In 1985 Advisors to the League of Revolutionary Struggle Asian journal East Wind included:

NEW YORK :Charlie Chin, Asian American musician, songwriter, poet and bartender; Mutya Gener, Sumbayanan, and Filipinos for Alternative Media; Florence Houn, student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine - Minority Student Committee, Asian Student Association, and Student National Medical Association; Morgan Jin, delegate to Newspaper Guild of New York and secretary-treasurer of Minority Caucus of the New York Times; Aichi Kochiyama, Asian Women's Editor of Ethnic Women and shop steward of Local 1930 of DC 37, AFSCME; Virgo Lee, chairman, Chinese Progressive Association (New York) and shop steward of American Postal Workers Union; Renee Tajima, Third World Newsreel, National Asian American Telecommunications Association Board of Directors, and writer.

References

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