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Vincent Chin</Em> Michigan Journal of Race and Law Volume 1 1996 The Social Construction of Identity in Criminal Cases: Cinema Verité and the Pedagogy of Vincent Chin Paula C. Johnson Syracuse University College of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons, Law and Race Commons, and the Law and Society Commons Recommended Citation Paula C. Johnson, The Social Construction of Identity in Criminal Cases: Cinema Verité and the Pedagogy of Vincent Chin, 1 MICH. J. RACE & L. 347 (1996). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl/vol1/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Journal of Race and Law by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN CRIMINAL CASES: CINEMA VERrT AND THE PEDAGOGY OF VINCENT CHIN Paula C. Johnson* IN TRO D U CTIO N ................................................................................... 348 I. THE ENIGMA OF RACE ........................................................................... 355 A . Theories of Racial Identity ............................................................. 355 1. Biological R ace ......................................................................... 355 2. Socially Constructed Race ...................................................... 358 B. Constructionsof Asian Americans................................................. 359 1. Historical Constructions of Asian Identities ....................... 359 a. Constructionsof Early Chinese Immigrants .......................... 362 b. Constructionsof Early Japanese Immigrants......................... 371 * Associate Professor, Syracuse University College of Law. B.A. 1981, University of Maryland, College Park; J.D. 1985, Temple University School of Law; LL.M. 1990, Georgetown University Law Center. This article is dedicated to the memory of Vincent Chin. It also is dedicated to Cindy (Ngok Lan) Chin (who was not related to Vincent). Cindy Chin and I were partners for seven years. In 1989, while I was pursuing an LL.M. at Georgetown, we watched the original PBS broadcast of Mw Killed Vincent Chin? We immediately were struck by the power and poignancy of the film and discussed its effectiveness in presenting the commonalities and distinctions between the struggles of people of color. Cindy had dedicated her life to such struggles and coalition-building against racism, violence against women, and homophobia. Without knowing precisely how, we decided then that there must be a place for Vincent Chin in law school teaching. As discussed in the article, I have used the film on numerous occasions since I began law teaching. Cindy died in 1993, before this article was completed. It is dedicated to her memory, to all who loved her, to all who supported us, and to all who share the vision for dignity and justice for all people. I also wish to thank my students from Syracuse University College of Law, Northern Illinois University School of Law, and Dickinson School of Law, whose participation and candor made this article possible. Many thanks also to my research assistants Heather Weinstein (Syracuse), Marie Nuguid (Syracuse), Frances Chua (Syracuse), and Mary Obrzut (NIU). Special thanks also to my colleagues Margaret Chon (Syracuse) and Peter Alexander (Pittsburgh) for their valuable comments on earlier drafts, and to Lisa Ikemoto (Loyola, L.A.), Angela Harris (UC-Berkeley), Mi- chael Chang (California Western), and Keith Aoki (Oregon) for their valuable insights and assistance. Also, thank you to Delores M. Walters for her continued support and understanding. Finally, my thanks go out to the members of the Michi- gan Journal of Race & Law for their hard work in producing this issue. 347 MichiganJournal of Race & Law [VOL. 1:2 c. Chinese and JapaneseAmerican Women: Early Experiences, Early Constructions........................................... 377 2. Contemporary Constructions of Asian Identities .............. 385 a. Forever Foreign....................................................................... 385 b. Model Minorities .................................................................... 389 II. ANALYSIS OF VINCENT CHIN .............................................................. 399 A . PedagogicalPerspectives ................................................................ 403 B. Scenes from Who Killed Vincent Chin? ...................................... 416 C. Contextualizing Criminal Law Doctrine and Discretion .............. 429 1. D octrine .................................................................................... 431 2. Discretion-Law Enforcement .............................................. 449 3. Discretion-Judging and Sentencing ................................... 455 D. Student Responses to Who Killed Vincent Chin? ...................... 461 III. THE SEQUEL: THE EMERGENCE OF "HATE CRIME" LEGISLATION ...473 CONCLUSION-CHALLENGES FOR CRIMINAL LAW, LEGAL EDUCATION, AND SOCIETY ................................................................. 485 [Pleople can aspire not simply to minimal participationin American society, but to equal dignity and maximum service.' -Harold Hongju Koh INTRODUCTION The long legacy of racial inequality endures in United States society and institutions. While the existence of racism adversely af- fects the entire society, African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina/o Americans bear the brunt of direct and indirect assaults of racism. Members of these groups often share similar experiences of racism based, as they are, on theories and practices of dehumanization, devaluation and exclusion. However, examining the impact of race in the United States requires viewing these experiences through the lenses of the particular communities of people of color. As Robert Blauner writes: Each third world people has undergone distinctive, indeed cataclysmic, experiences on the American continent that separate its history from the others, as well as from whites. 1. Harold Hongju Koh, Foreword, in ASIAN AMERIcANS AND THE SUPREME COURT: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY, at i, xi (Hyung-Chan Kim ed., 1992). SUMMR 1996] Pedagogy of Vincent Chin Only Native Americans waged a 300-year war against white encroachment; only they were subject to genocide and removal. Only Chicanos were severed from an ongo- ing modern nation; only they remained concentrated in the area of their original land base, close to Mexico. Only blacks went through a 250-year period of slavery. The Chi- nese were the first people whose presence was interdicted by exclusion acts. The Japanese were the one group de- clared an internal enemy and rounded up in concentration camps. Though the notion of colonized minorities points to a similarity of situation, it should not imply that black, red, yellow, and brown America are all in the same bag. Colo- nization has taken different forms in the histories of the individual groups. Each people is strikingly heterogene- ous, and the variables of time, place, and manner have affected the forms of colonialism, the character of racial domination, and the responses of the group. Thus, examination of constructions of "otherness" and the role of law in American society requires investigation into the distinct and shared experiences of racial disparity. Such an expanded scope is necessary to better understand and analyze the phenomenon of racism itself by identifying its various guises and manifestations. This understanding is necessary between White Americans and peoples of color, as well as between communities of peoples of color.4 As the demographics of society and law schools become 2. Robert Blauner, Colonized and Immigrant Minorities, in FROM DIFFERENT SHORES: PERSPECTIVES ON RACE AND ETHNICrrY IN AMERICA 149, 158 (Ronald Takaki ed., 2d ed. 1994). As Professor Ronald Takaki also states, "[W]ho we are and how we are perceived and treated in terms of race and ethnicity are conditioned by where we came from originally." Ronald Takaki, Introduction: Different Shores, in FROM DIFFERENT SHORES, supra, at 3, 8. 3. See, e.g., David Theo Goldberg, Introduction, to THE ANATOMY OF RACISM at xiii (David Theo Goldberg ed., 1990) ("[The presumption of a single monolithic racism is being displaced by a mapping of the multifarious historical formulations of racisms."). 4. Increasingly, racial conflicts are occurring between different groups of people of color, as well as between Whites and people of color, as recent incidents of African American and Asian American clashes in California, New York, and Massachusetts reveal. See infra notes 209-20. The patterns of inter-racial bias crimes vary. In Miami, Florida, for instance, tensions are greatest between Latino and African American residents. See Daniel Goleman, As Bias Crime Seems to Rise, Scientists Study the Roots of Racism, N.Y. TIMES, May 29, 1990, at C1, C5. In a recent article, Professor Pat Chew recalled the racial taunting that she experienced during childhood in El Paso, Texas, in which she was greeted with "Chinita, Chinita" by Mexican American children; and later, as an adult in El Paso, being called "Chi-na Chi-na," followed by kissing and hissing sounds. Pat Michigan Journalof Race & Law [VOL. 1:2 increasingly diverse, it is important that
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