14:14:05 Sara Schwebel: Good afternoon, everyone. It's wonderful to have you here with us. Thank you for your patience. My name is Sara Schwebel and I'm the director for The Center for Children's Books. We had some technical snags, but we are moving forward, and so glad that we can share in conversation today. I would like to (I'm going to be turning over the mic in just a second) I want to, for the real introductions, introduce my colleague, Associate Professor Sarah Park Dahlen, at the University of Illinois iSchool. She is an expert in, and fierce advocate for, Asian American children's literature. I'm going to turn things over to her. 14:14:44 Sarah Park Dahlen: Thank you so much, Dr. Schwebel, and thank you all for coming here. And again we do apologize for the technical snafus. We are going to be having a conversation with Paula Yoo and we had intended to have slides, and we had intended to have Paula here, but she is coming in through my phone with the microphone right next to it, so we are still gonna have a conversation. And hopefully, we'll do something a little bit later to have the whole presentation. But for now, I just wanted to echo my thanks and welcome, and on behalf of the University of Illinois Center for Children's Books, welcome to A Conversation with Author Paula Yoo. 14:15:20 Sarah Park Dahlen: Like Dr. Schwebel shared, I'm an Associate Professor here. I co-edit Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, and I wanted to let you know that we organized this event as part of our TEAACH Act series. The TEAACH Act requires that all Illinois K-12 public school students learn at least one unit of Asian American history, and so the CCB organized this series of events to support educators and other interested parties in our efforts to learn more Asian American history, so that we can share with our young people. So I'm very, very thankful for the support of the CCB. And I also wanted to introduce my colleague and longtime collaborator, Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, who is co-hosting this event. Dr. Thomas is co-chair of the Joint Program in English and Education, and Associate Professor in the Marsal Family School of Education at the University of Michigan, where she is currently teaching a Detroit Stories course. So we are delighted to have Paula Yoo here, Paula Yoo and all of you here with us today. So I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Thomas. 14:16:21 Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: Hello and welcome. I am Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, and I will be introducing our speaker today. It's such an honor. Paula Yoo is an award-winning book author, TV writer and producer, feature screenwriter and former journalist, having worked for the Seattle Times, The Detroit News and People Magazine. She graduated with a BA Cum Laude in English from Yale University and MS in Journalism from Columbia University, and an MFA in creative writing, from Warren Wilson College. Paula is the author of 12 children's books and young adult novels. Her books have won the Boston Globe Horn Book Award, the National Book Award Long List for Young People's Literature, IRA Notables and Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections, the APALA Award and multiple starred reviews. Her latest YA narrative nonfiction book is From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial That Galvanized the Asian-American Movement. Her next YA nonfiction book, Rising From the Ashes: How the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising Bridged Two Communities will be published in Fall 2023 by Norton Young Readers. I am so excited to have the privilege of introducing Paula Yoo! 14:18:14 Sarah Park Dahlen: Well, I just wanted to ask you how you decided to write the story of Vincent Chin. 14:18:25 Paula Yoo: Of course, would you mind just for one second, holding up my face so I can just wave to everybody real quick? Hi, K-pop hearts to all. I apologize I had a little bit of a nervous breakdown. For some reason there's a technical error. I am locked out of my Zoom for 30 minutes. So after we have this conversation, I'm gonna try to sign Zoom to see if I can get you those slides. So I guess Sarah, you can put the phone down now and hook me up to the microphone. I just wanted to see everybody. So thank you again. And for that wonderful introduction, and despite all the technical stuff, I'm excited to talk without everyone about Vincent Chin. Video and transcript data unavailable from minute 4:56-5:12 14:19:24 Paula Yoo: In 1993 I was a reporter for The Detroit News, from 1993 to 1995. At the time I was a Seattle Times intern and I got a wonderful job offer to write features at the Detroit News. And although I was really excited, one of the first thoughts that came to my mind, aside from the fact that I love Motown and you know, Detroit is such an awesome city. But I was a little nervous, just because Vincent Chin, this is 1993. So you have to remember barely a decade had gone by since Vincent Chin had been killed, and me and my Asian-American friends wondered, "Am I going to be safe in Detroit? Because this is where Vincent Chin was killed." And we ended up, I moved to Detroit, and the good news is, I met my future friends for life and my future husband in Detroit. So we go back every year. If any of you are from Michigan and Detroit, I am a Lafayette coney dog girl. I prefer Lafayette, and you'll know what that means if you're from Detroit. And we go back every year to visit family and friends. I unfortunately have not been Detroit since the pandemic, but we are hoping to go back again soon, either this year or next year. But so basically, Vincent has been on my mind for more than half my life, and I remember several years ago because I also write TV. You know, I was in between TV jobs and also in between books, and I was having a conversation with my book agent, and at the time this was 2017/2018. Vincent Chin's name had come back (his name had disappeared) and it came back into the public consciousness, because after the 2016 presidential election, hate crimes against people of color, and especially Asian Americans, tripled in Michigan alone. And there was also the horrible three murders of Indian American men in 2017 which prompted NPR to ask, "Is this the Indian American version of Vincent Chin, happening?" 14:21:21 Paula Yoo: And so he was kind of coming back into the mainstream. So I mentioned that story to my book agent, and that's when she said, "I can't believe this has never been taught in schools." And that's basically what inspired the young adult narrative nonfiction book of this case. 14:21:39 Sarah Park Dahlen: Wow, thank you so much. You know, you just said that this has never been taught in schools, and I was wondering, so many of us of this particular generation did not learn a lot in our K-12. And that's what we're trying to fix now. So can you share about your own K-12 experiences learning about diverse communities and histories? 14:22:05 Paula Yoo: That's a great question. I've wanted to be a writer since I was in kindergarten, because I read Charlotte's Web when I was 6 years old. I read that book over and over and over, and the one character I identified with the most was the spider, Charlotte, because she was a writer and I wanted to become a writer as well. And I went home several years ago to visit my parents' house and I found a box of my childhood drawings. And it was really cute, I was going through them, and I noticed over the years the drawings of me as a little girl with black hair and brown eyes (because I'm Korean American, I clearly identified as Korean American)... The pictures started to change, and all I saw were pictures of me drawing myself with blonde hair and blue eyes, because that's all I saw. Because I'm a Gen Xer (I turn 54 next week) so I was a child of the 70s. And I will say the one thing that's interesting is because Asian American Pacific Islander literature history was not taught in depth in kindergarten through twelfth grade, when I was a child. It's not that it didn't exist. Laurence Yep was a Newbery Honor winner for Dragon Wings, which came out in 1975. I never heard of that book until my thirties. 14:23:18 Sarah Park Dahlen: Yeah, same. 14:23:22 Paula Yoo: So I think one of the big issues is that there have been great, wonderful Asian American Pacific Islander authors and history books and novels--all that stuff has been there for decades. It's about access, so I couldn't have access as a child. So as a result, that's why "representation matters" is such a big deal to me. So I think that answered the question, there was another part to it? I'm sorry. 14:23:43 Sarah Park Dahlen: No, I think you did, and I really appreciate what you said about access, because that's what a lot of us say, that, as you pointed out, Laurence Yep, Yoshiko Uchida, Sunyoon Choi, so many people have been writing for a long time. And, you know, what I say is that these books existed when I was a child reader, and I would have loved to read them, but no one shared them with me and I didn't even know to really look for them, that they existed. And so I think that's such an important role for our library science students and also our education students, because they have the first point of contact with children outside of the home. And so they play this really, really important role in promoting good literature, diverse literature to all the students. So, yeah, I totally agree with what you're saying, that it's a question of access. It is also a little bit a question of supply, because literally there were fewer books, but they were there, and now there are so many good books, and it really would be terrible if people did not have access today with all of the great books that are now available 14:24:51 Paula Yoo: No, these are all excellent points, and some of the statistics I bring up, that people may or may not know about, is, even though there has been--it's been amazing, I mean we just had the Oscars, you know--there's been such great increased access and representation and also supply and demand of Asian American Pacific Islander culture, and our stories, and our voices. You know, on the page and on screen. But the thing...the irony, though, is that a recent, two recent studies came out that I often cite when I do these talks. One was that last year a survey came out, in which 42% of Americans could not name a single Asian American person, a famous person. 14:25:43 Sarah Park Dahlen: I remember that. 14:25:44 Paula Yoo: Yeah, the number one answer was Bruce Lee. The number two answer was Jackie Chan. And the third answer was, "I don't know." I've never heard of an Asian American name "I don't know." I mean it's ridiculous. And the other thing that was also, I think, a very important statistic is, about a year and a half ago they found out that 1 out of 4 Asian American Pacific Islander youth (children to teenagers) reported being physically or verbally bullied and harassed because of the pandemic. And because we have, like what? Eight states already now are mandating mandatory, nuanced, in-depth AAPI history to be taught in public schools in K-12 grades, which is great. But if all 50 states had been doing this back in 1975 maybe that survey that I just quoted, the number would have been 0, not 1 out of 4. And I mean, so that's just another statistical example about why it's so important to get our stories out there. And that's kind of what inspires the books that I do, right? You know, I tend to focus on Asian-American themes (both fiction and nonfiction) and history that I think people should know, like all people should know about. 14:26:46 Sarah Park Dahlen: Yeah, absolutely. And the survey that you just cited reminds me of our mutual friend Curtis Chin and his documentary Vincent Who? And for those of you who are not familiar, in this documentary Curtis basically goes around, I think college campuses? I haven't seen it in a while. But yes, so he asks people, have you heard of Vincent Chin? And the answer is often Vincent who? And so there are two main documentaries about Vincent Chin: Who Killed Vincent Chin and Vincent Who? And the first one kind of goes into the details of the case, and then the second one goes into sort of how the case around Vincent Chin fell into obscurity even though it was one of the most groundbreaking legal cases of, you know, ever. As Paula Yoo notes in her book, it was the first time there was a civil rights case involving an Asian American. And also just like the absurdities that were found in the first criminal case, right? Where they pled guilty and literally got away with murder. Yeah, but maybe this would be a good time, Paula, for you to share a little bit about your research process, some of the things that you found. I imagine a lot of our audience participants have read the book. I know my students have read the book. But just in case there are people here who have not, maybe just a really brief summary, and then also a little bit about your research process. 14:28:13 Paula Yoo: Of course, so very briefly. Vincent Chin was a 27 year old Chinese American who was out for a bachelor party. He was going to get married. It was June of 1982, and he ended up at a club called The Fancy Pants Club. And while he was there, allegedly two white men started yelling racist epithets at him which led to a bar fight. The fight spilled outside into the parking lot. Vincent ran off. His friends ran to find him. The two white men that had allegedly been taunting him, who had gotten into a car also. They found Vincent first. So the two white men held him down and beat him to death with a baseball bat. He was in a coma for four days, and then he was taken off life support. He died four days later, and his funeral was held one day after his wedding was supposed to take place. Fast forward, a white judge named Judge Charles Kaufman. Both men pled and were found guilty of manslaughter. But the judge felt mercy for them, and said because they had no prior criminal record, and that he viewed this as a case of toxic masculinity and too much to drink, he famously said, "Let the punishment fit the criminal, not the crime" and gave them five years probation and a $3,000 fine each. And actually, I think it was three years probation. Forgive me! I'm getting some of the details confused with my LA Riots book coming out soon. 14:29:44 Paula Yoo: But anyway so that's what happened. And that's actually what galvanized the Asian American community. They started protesting across the country, and they were joined in solidarity by prominent leaders in the Black community in Detroit and other diverse communities. And it led to the first federal civil rights trial on behalf of an Asian American, in 1984. The first verdict was guilty for Ronald Ebens, the man who held the bat. His stepson, Michael Nitz, was acquitted of both charges, but due to a technical error in the court, there was an appeal, and there was a second trial two years later. And in this trial the technical error in the first trial was enough to plant a seed of doubt, and the jury had no choice but to acquit, and they said he was not guilty of violating Vincent Chin's civil rights. And I do want to take a step back and say, just for those of you that are not familiar with the case, because both men were found guilty of manslaughter, they could not be tried for the same crime twice, which is why everyone found this clever loophole. They said, "Wait a minute. His civil rights were violated. Vincent Chin's civil right to be in a place of public accommodation, The Fancy Pants Club, was violated on account of his race." So, although we lost the court case, Vincent Chin's name became famous over the decades as the first, the very first hate crimes trial for an Asian American, and so he's become a symbol. So, although we lost that battle, we did not lose the war, and that's why his story is so important and the case is such long reaching legacy. 14:31:19 Paula Yoo: Now, to go very quickly into my research. Basically, I was a reporter for many years. I wrote for the Seattle Times and the Detroit News and People Magazine in LA, and I still employ my reporting techniques when I do my books. So I believe in primary research. So instead of just going all over all the newspaper articles that covered the trial, I actually worked with the National Archive in Chicago, and I got all nine thousand billion pages of the actual 1984 court transcripts. And it was very valuable to read those, because I could interpret what happened, because if I only used newspaper accounts, I would be interpreting what was mostly white reporters, their point of view. And it was interesting because there were things that Lily Chin said that I thought were misconstrued in some of these newspaper accounts, and there were certain quotes that were not used in media accounts that I found very important from the actual court transcripts. And I also went and interviewed pretty much everybody involved in the case. I interviewed both defense attorneys for the killers, I interviewed some of the legal team for Vincent Chin's family, I interviewed many famous activists who got their start with this case, including Roland Hwang, Jim Shimoura, and of course Helen Zia. 14:32:32 Paula Yoo: And the thing that makes my book different is I also uncovered new news that no one had ever written about before, which was Jarod Lew, who was the son of Vicky Wong, the woman who was supposed to marry Vincent Chin. So I got to have the bride's family's point of view in this book, which is the point of view that is very rarely, if ever, covered in this case. So that's why I believe in always trying to reach out and interviewing the actual people involved, because you also get more sense of their emotional reaction. It's not just facts and figures, but you get to see their reaction. And I will say finally, I am the only person to meet and interview Ronald Ebens, the man who killed Vincent Chin, in person at his house, since Michael Moore did in 1987. So that was a huge get in my book as well. So that's basically what I did: a lot of archival research. Going through newspapers.com, and a lot of in-person live interviews. 14:33:32 Sarah Park Dahlen: Paula, I know that when you usually give presentations, you have your binders ready to show people, do you have them? Yes, let's show people what your binders look like. Your research binders, I think, especially for the researchers and the young scholars in the room. I am holding you up. 14:33:53 Paula Yoo: I lost you. Hello? 14:33:58 Sarah Park Dahlen: Yeah, we're here. Yes, we are. Yes, and we see you. 14:34:09 Paula Yoo: Okay. Alright. So here's an example of one of my...let's see. Oh, actually let me see, you know what I can do? I can switch this around. Here we go. Alright. Those are all my binders. This. This is an example of all the court transcripts and as you can tell, I'm really into post-its and stuff like that. So these are all really, really huge binders. So, yeah, let me go back. 14:34:30 Sarah Park Dahlen: Yeah, it's tremendous to hear about your research. Yes, thank you so much for showing us. Oh, gosh! I had another question. Oh, one of the things that my students often talk about when we're discussing children's books and relating them to school standards, is looking at particular situations from multiple perspectives. And that is one of the things that I found most striking about your book, in the way that you were able to get Eben's perspective. And so I was wondering if you could share a little bit more about how you decided to craft his version of the story? And why you thought it was so important to include, for readers, so much about him? 14:35:28 Paula Yoo: Of course. Well, I wanna say, because there was a lot of controversy recently with the 60 Minutes interview with Marjorie Taylor Green. I want to say that when people say journalists should be objective, that's actually not really true. None of us can truly be objective, because we're human beings. We all have a point of view. The most you can do as a journalist is to be fair. Now, when I say fair, I don't mean "we have to hear both sides," because sometimes we don't need to hear that other side. Hearing both sides does not always equal being fair. But what it is, is for me, the reason why I thought it was important to interview Ronald Ebens was because he has not spoken about this publicly, not since he talked briefly with Emil Guillermo in 2012. It had been many years since he had spoken. And because of the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes because of the pandemic, I felt it was very important to get his point of view today. He did, when I met him, I have to say, and it's indicated in the footnotes of the book. He did not want to speak on the record, so we had an off-the-record conversation. So there's a lot I can't reveal, but it was important for me to meet him, because I wanted to see who he was as a person, because a lot of times I think with these stories, people can be caricatured, or they can become kind of a symbol. And you need to see them in person. You need to find out the, you know, the humanity behind them, find out what makes them tick. And that was important to me as a writer, because I write from the...I write with facts and with fairness, and try to be as, you know, thorough as I can with my research. But I also believe in storytelling. I believe in, you know, writing from the heart and looking at everyone's emotional journey. So I wanted to know where is he today emotionally? Where is he today? That's important to me. So that's why I pursued him. And it was interesting because to this day he still expresses remorse. He knows what he did was wrong, but to this day he also still believes what he did was not racist. He believes it was toxic masculinity. He believes he had too much to drink, and I think that he does not understand some of the nuanced discussions that we have on racism. I think he comes from that generation where racism--it's only, you're only racist if you wear a white hood kind of thing. And I don't think he understands all the nuances, the confirmation biases, microaggressions, and so forth. So it was, it was very moving to me to meet him, and I cried afterwards. And meeting Evens made me realize for the first time that compassion and justice are not...compassion, justice, and anger are not mutually exclusive. I can still feel angry about what he did. I can still feel that justice was not served. But I can feel compassion for him, and I think all those things can exist on the same plane. You know, you can feel compassion for someone, but that doesn't mean that you absolve them, or that you no longer feel they should be responsible and accountable for their actions. Of course they should be accountable. Of course justice was not served. This is the travesty of the court case, and it's unfortunate. So... But that was something I had not anticipated. And so that kind of helped me on my journey as a human being as well. So that's why it's always really important for me to do that. 14:38:44 Paula Yoo: And that's exactly what I did with my upcoming book on the 1992 LA Uprising. I have exclusive, in-person interviews with Rodney King's family, Latasha Harlins' family, and Edward Lee's family about what happened in 1992. So that's just very important to me. 14:39:06 Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: So Paula, thank you so much for being with us, and I'm really sorry about the circumstances, and you know. But I just truly appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with us. This is Ebony. I have been teaching a course about Detroit Stories, and my students thoroughly enjoyed reading From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry, and what I wanted to know was, since you have done reporting, research, and storytelling work in several different locations around the country, was there something about the Detroit context that you would deem important for galvanizing the Asian American movement? So was it, you know, was it... I mean the case itself was one of the first news stories I remember, having been born and raised in Detroit. I was 5 years old when it happened in elementary school, during the court cases, and the Detroit media is notorious for... 14:40:31 Paula Yoo: Oh, by the way, I'm sorry. Excuse me. I just signed in. I'm now on zoom. 14:40:32 Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: Oh, goodness, okay, then please join us, and then you can answer me on camera. 14:40:35 Paula Yoo: Okay. Yeah. Can you see me? Hi! I'm gonna hang up. 14:40:43 Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: Okay, oh, this is great. 14:40:47 Paula Yoo: Can you all hear me? Are we good? 14:40:52 Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: We're all good. It's so good to see you! 14:40:53 Paula Yoo: I'm so sorry! I don't know what happened. 14:40:57 Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: It's not your fault. It's not your fault at all. 14:41:00 Paula Yoo: I think I signed in too many times. I got panicked and I was trying to sign in, and then they locked me in jail. This is perfect, so I can actually share--if you make me a co-host--I can share the slides in a bit. I can just run you through some of them. 14:41:13 Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: Okay, that sounds good. 14:41:13 Paula Yoo: So keep going. So you you were talking, so you were talking. 14:41:18 Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: No, you can share your slides, forget. I can ask my question later. I'm just happy to see you. 14:41:25 Paula Yoo: Well, if you want, let let me go ahead. And just because, you know, we wanted to, I'm sorry. Let's see, I'm gonna go to share screen. Allow Zoom to share your screen. Oh, I got it! I gotta go to... Oh, here we go, allow Zoom and I use my password. Okay, can you? Let's see, let's try this again. Share screen. Okay, here we go. Perfect. Alright, can you see? You can see my screen? Okay, let's get rid of these emails. Let's get rid of that. Let me just get rid of some stuff here. All right. Can you? Can you see my thing? 14:42:12 Sarah Park Dahlen: Yes, we can. 14:42:16 Paula Yoo: Alright very quickly. I'm gonna go through these. And let me see what time it is, because I wanna make sure I don't go over, so we've got time. We've got about 18 minutes. So I'm just gonna do my little thing. 14:42:24 Sarah Park Dahlen: Yeah, and we, we do want to leave time for audience questions, though. So, yeah. 14:42:28 Paula Yoo: Yeah. So I'll make sure this won't be more than 5 or 10 minutes. So while we already talked about Charlotte's Web, these are the pictures. So you can tell on one side I've got black hair. On the other side (and I was really into horses back then) I have blond hair and blue eyes. That's an example of that. And then this is just the surveys that I was talking about. Oh, and I did want to bring up the model minority myth. I'm, like I said, I was class of 1987 in high school, and in 1987, when I was in the twelfth grade this Time Magazine cover appeared. And the reason why I bring this up is because a lot of people have said, "But the model minority myth, at least those are good stereotypes. You're good at the violin. You go to Ivy Leagues. You work hard, and you know, isn't that better than a negative stereotype?" And my thing is that the model minority myth is a very negative, toxic, and fatal and dangerous stereotype. And one reason why I bring this up is because this also kind of ties into Vincent Chin, because back then, in the eighties, Asians were considered...we don't rock the boat. We work hard, you know. We don't cause any trouble and Vincent Chin, he had a temper. He was a guy's guy, you know? I mean, he watched football, he had lots of girlfriends and he threw the first punch. Doesn't mean he should have been killed, but he did throw the first punch at the club because he got angry, and he did not fit the stereotype of what Asian American men were supposed to be like, or all Asians back then. So that's why talk about this when I do my little spiel, and then my joke is, you know, at the same time, you know, I played violin. I went to two Ivy leagues. I'm really good at math. I took AP Calc, but the thing is that it's because I just love numbers. I love music, it has nothing to do with me being Asian. It's all just a coincidence and the problem with the model minority myth is that it dehumanizes us, it trivializes our achievements, and it can lead to things like Vincent Chin being killed. It can lead to the uptick in 12,000 people reporting hate crimes because of the pandemic. You know? 14:44:28 Paula Yoo: So that's part of what I do when I talk to schools, and then, oh, and this is the TV. So I'm gonna just go very quickly. So this is me at the West Wing for those of you that saw that. This is me with the fake president Martin Sheen, and I just want to bring this up very quickly. This was the first script that I wrote for the West Wing about a North Korean pianist that wanted to defect at the, on the night of his recital at the White House, and it was very important for me to write this because I had never written about a Korean person or an Asian person on TV, and that's what actually led to me writing about Anna May Wong. And I only include this because she was the first Asian American to be minted in U.S. currency. So I just wanted to share that with you. She's a famous Asian American film star from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. And she actually basically was all about "representation matters" long before Twitter happened. You know, she was about trying to get more fair and authentic roles, and because of her, that's why we have Michelle Yeoh winning an Oscar today. You know she was kind of a trailblazer then. And then this is just because I worked for Super Girl. Like some students, they want to see. This is how Super Girl flies. This is me. I'm going to go very quickly through these. And actually, I want to show this to you as well, because when we talk about representation matters. That's Melissa Benoist, who plays Super Girl on our show on the CW. I wrote this episode and when I was there it was really interesting, because a lot of the little girls in this scene. You'll notice a lot of the little girls in this scene. You'll notice a lot of them are of Asian descent. They had never seen a woman who looked like me on a TV set, as the writer, and that meant a lot to me. You know. That they wanted to have a picture taken with me. So that again, that's why it's very important for the kind of work that I do. And then we're going to go into Vincent Chin, the paperback. Get a sneak peek, don't put this on the Internet. This is a mockup of what the paperback will look like. It's coming out in August of this year. And it will have a teacher's guide. 14:46:20 Paula Yoo: This is me in Detroit in 1993. Haven't changed my hairstyle or my fashion, as you can see. And then this is Vincent Chin, and I just want to show you, and I'm looking at my time here. Okay good. I have maybe about four more minutes left. This is an example of the type of unemployment that was happening back then. Because what happened was because of smaller, more fuel-efficient import cars from Japan, hundreds of thousands of American auto workers were being laid off, and Michigan is home, is birthplace, to the Big three: GM, Ford and Chrysler. So this kind of stuff was happening. And these pictures chill my blood because it's not too hard to see. Something as violent as this, kind of then maybe transitioning to what happened to Vincent Chin. You know, or what happened with, you know, you think again about China Virus, Kung Flu Virus. I mean, it's very chilling. And I hate it when people say that "sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me." That's a very famous childhood nursery thing that we were all taught. A lot of us in the Gen. X Generation, and I disagree with that because I believe words can hurt and lead to fatalities such as this. "300,000 laid-off UAW (United Auto Workers) members. Don't like your import, please park it in Tokyo." And then this was an actual bumper sticker from the eighties. "Datsun/Toyota/Nissan. Remember Pearl Harbor." You know, let's think about that. And what's happening today with the pandemic and with the China virus, you know, this is why Vincent Chin has his legacy so important because it's been happening all over again. I mean, it's haunting, the similarities. 14:48:00 Paula Yoo: Now I just want to show you some behind the scenes pictures. This is where he was killed. These are the two police officers that arrested the men. This is the baseball bat that was used. It's in my book, and I'm showing this to you. This is a famous story from the Detroit Free Press about the killing, and that's Vicky Wong, who was supposed to be married to Vincent Chin. Oh, and by the way, I do want to say, I do have to say this every time I do this I forgot to say this at the top of the hour, but anything that I'm showing, please don't put it on Twitter, or do a screenshot, because these photos are proprietary. So thank you. Copyright. Anyway, this is Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, and this is Lily Chin. She went from being a quiet mother who just wanted grandchildren. She became an activist overnight, and I'm going to come back to this picture quickly. This is an example of some of the archives where they handed out flyers, you know, to protest what was happening, and these are photos that were taken by Corky Lee, our friend Curtis Chin just did a he did a short film on the life of Corky Lee, who sadly passed away from Covid last year in January. But these are some of the photos, and this "It's not fair." Just so, some of you have not read the book, those are the last words, Vincent said before he died. "It's not fair." So that kind of became a rallying cry at these protests. And these are just examples to show you how this was front page news. This was top of the news hour with Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, I mean this made national news. This was a huge story back in the early eighties. 14:49:30 Paula Yoo: This is an example of the research, for your students. This is me at the University of Michigan Archival Library there. And this is what I tell young people. You Gen Z'ers, this is how you got canceled in the 1980s. Instead of Twitter and canceling you on social media, people wrote angry letters to newspaper editors to protest. So there were boxes of these handwritten letters, and this is, I showed you earlier, my binder. These are my binders, it's my cat! Oh, wait! Here we go, and I can hold it up again, just so you can see how heavy they are. They're really heavy. And then because I do "boots on the ground" reporting, this is, we went to where the nightclub used to be, and we drove down Woodward because, emotionally, I wanted to know what was it like to run down this street in the middle of the night, you know, knowing that someone was after you with a baseball bat. So this is Woodward Avenue, in Highland Park. This is where they ran down. This is the McDonald's today, and this is Jarod Lew. I mentioned earlier who he was, and it was funny because Corky Lee, before he died, he told me you should have Jarod help you. I know I have a couple more minutes, I'll be done soon, because I just noticed it's 12:50 my time. So just to let you know how I met Jarod, Corky Lee said, "Well, when you're in Detroit you should hire Jarod to take some photos for you. He's a young photographer that I mentor" and I was like, "Oh, great!" And Corky said, "By the way, he's related to Vincent Chin. Might be a good interview." So when I was working with Jarod, I said, "Hey, I understand you're related to Vincent Chin. Love to interview you." And he goes, "Well technically, I'm not related to him. My mom is Vicky Wong." And that was the record scratch. That's when I was like, "Okay, you are now completely part of my book" because Jarod as a way serves as the ambassador, to kind of show you how Vincent's name had disappeared. Because what had happened was on the thirtieth anniversary, Jarod was, I think, 25/26 years old. His cousin called him and said, "Today's the big thirtieth anniversary. Don't talk to your mom about that guy." Jarod said, "What guy?" His cousin says, "Vincent Chin." And, like Curtis's documentary, Jarod said, "Who's Vincent Chin?" So he Googled him. And this is the first thing that came up on Google for Jarod. And he told me in my interview, I recognized my mom immediately. So for over quarter century his mother had kept this a secret. So my book is also about Jarod's journey to reach out to his mom. You know, and to try to uncover this secret family tragedy. 14:52:02 Paula Yoo: And I'm his auntie today. And I do want to say that he did, he's now at Yale, getting his MFA in photography. And following definitely in Corky Lee's footsteps, and he did an art exhibit--a photography art exhibit--on Vincent Chin, and it's in the National Art Gallery at the Smithsonian and I had the honor of visiting it in August. So I just think that it's a beautiful full circle with his story. And then just very quickly, I'm gonna walk you through. This is Gary Koivu today, who I interviewed. He was supposed to be one of the best men, he was supposed to be in the wedding party. This is some of the activists. This is Jim Shimoura and Roland Hwang. This is a young Helen Zia. This is Helen Zia today. This is Liza Chan. She sadly died 6 months after I interviewed her. Again, this is why it's important for me, because a lot of these stories are so old, people are dying. Their stories are disappearing, and everybody I interviewed for this story, I will say, they all cried because I realized they weren't just remembering what happened. They were reliving it. I was witnessing trauma, you know, because it was...they were not allowed to tell their side of the story, so it was very important for me to talk to them. This is Morris Cotton, the officer. He still has nightmares. He sometimes has survivor guilt because he feels that he didn't get to Vincent soon enough, and so sometimes he blames himself. Which is so, he cried. I cried. It was very sad, but Vincent Chin inspired him to become one of the first Black Chief of Police at the Highland Park Police Department. So you know, this shows you again how Vincent affected everyone for the rest of their lives. 14:53:37 Paula Yoo: This Mabel Lim. She was one of the grandmothers, the church ladies that handed out those fliers I showed you earlier. This is Van Ong. He was the Filipino American nurse who tended to Vincent Chin at the emergency room, and he told me Vincent's beating was one of the worst things he had ever seen in his 20 years plus working in the ER in Detroit. You know and he had seen a lot. So that also reminds you how brutal this beating was. And then I go into finally, you know, talking about the legacy today, you have this right? This is why this looks familiar to me. Look at that! 40 years later we're still seeing this. And then this led to the signing of the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act, and this was signed. Actually, this was signed, just, I think, three days after Vincent Chin would have been 67 years old, you know. And in fact, Congress passed it on Vincent Chin's birthday. You know. So the coincidences are just haunting. And then we talked about education. I went over these statistics, and then just I'll wrap up by saying my new book coming out on the 1992 LA Riots, which we now call the LA Uprising. I was inspired to write this book because there were so many beautiful stories of Jesse Jackson becoming best friends with Lily Chin, and this Black/Asian-American solidarity really spoke to me, and I wanted to explore that because that's happening today right now. In Korea we don't have the language to say "Black Lives Matter," so the Korean phrase for "Black Lives Matter" is literally, if you translate it in English, is "Black Lives are Precious." And that's very important to me, because I went to Atlanta, I interviewed Robert Peterson, who is the Black-Korean son of Yong Ae Yue, who was the eighth and last person killed in the Atlanta hate crime spa shootings. That trial is happening right now, and that trial is about their violation, it's a civil rights trial. It's a hate crime trial. This would not have happened today had we not had Vincent Chin. So again you're seeing a 40 year legacy having an impact today. 14:55:39 Paula Yoo: And then this is just very briefly, my book is called Rising from the Ashes. It's about the 1992 LA Uprising, but I focused specifically on the destruction of Korea Town because we suffered almost half of the one billion dollars in damage, disproportionately, because of...there were tensions between the Korean American and Black communities, especially with the Latasha Harlins' killing, by an innocent 15 year old girl who is wrongly accused of shoplifting by a Korean-American store owner, and this store owner also received very much a similar sentence. I think it was $500 fine and five years probation. And Latasha Harlins and Rodney King are what led to the rioting and also the almost total destruction of Korea Town back then, and Edward Lee is a Korean teenager who died trying to protect a store. So I interview all of the families, and this is just an example of before and after, you know, rising from the ashes. And this is Latasha Harlins' and Rodney King's families, with a Korean church, you know, like they're all working together now, trying to make sure that this doesn't happen again. So I talk quite a bit about that, and I had the honor (up on the left), that is Dennetta and Lora King, Rodney King's first wife and their daughter. And then I'm with Shinese Harlins Kilgore and Christina Rogers, who are family to Latasha Harlins. And then at the bottom the elderly gentleman is K.W. Lee, who is a Korean American--he's considered the Asian American godfather of journalism because he was the very first Asian American journalist back in the 1950s. And then these are the parents of Edward Lee, who was killed. So I interviewed them, and then I wrap with this. This was a mural that's in the back of my book. This is that building today. And I just want to conclude by saying, this is what drives my writing, because everything constantly gets dismantled and erased with AAPI literature and history. So that's why I write the books that I do, because buildings may be torn down, things may be forgotten, and I don't want that to happen, and that's why I write the books that I do. And there's a picture of my cats just to end on a happy note. And I'm going to stop the screen share. And if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. K-pop hearts. 14:58:02 Sarah Park Dahlen: Are there any questions, maybe from my group of students right there, any questions? She's saying... I think she's shaking her head. Anybody else in the audience who, any comments or questions? There's a lot of great stuff happening in the chat as well. 14:58:00 Paula Yoo: Hmm! I'm looking at it now. 14:58:26 Sarah Park Dahlen: Paula, I don't know if you know but K.W. Lee is one of our most famous Asian American alumni. He studied journalism here in the 50s. Yeah, so he was our speaker at the 10 Year celebration for Asian American studies. And it was amazing. 14:58:37 Paula Yoo: And it's so interesting because my dad is in my LA Uprising book. I talk about my dad because he was at Tennessee Polytech in the 1960s. He actually came there just seven years after K.W. Lee was there, so it's a coincidence. It's so interesting. It was an honor. I met him, of course, in the 90s and then I had not since. But we did go up to visit him in Sacramento, which is nice. 14:59:06 Sarah Park Dahlen: Yeah, yeah, we also need a biography of him and Corky Lee, by the way. Doctor Thomas, did you have anything else to add in regards to, you know, Detroit Stories, or any? 14:59:23 Paula Yoo: Oh, yeah, we were gonna talk about Detroit! 14:59:25 Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: Oh, no, you answered everything, you answered everything in that lovely presentation. I can't thank you enough for your work, and you know, just in solidarity I'm sending you all the love from Metro Detroit right now. Thank you for your work. 14:59:40 Paula Yoo: Oh, thank you! Oh, well, thank you Dr. Thomas and Doctor Sarah Park Dahlen. I really appreciate it, and I will say, the other thing about my book that I'll say very quickly for the Detroit students is that, Detroit to me... Setting as character is one of my favorite things to do, and LA is a character. My Riots book coming up. Detroit is a character in this book, because I cannot stand when people malign or say terrible things about Detroit because I find it racist, I find it ignorant, I find it hateful. I was (because even though I was a little nervous being Asian American going there), I wasn't scared to go to Detroit. Because the first thing I thought of was, "Oh, my God! Motown, you know, Punk Rock. Iggy Pop, you know, just like this is an amazing city. So I was very excited to go there. I lived in the city. I had a great time. But yeah, but I mean, I think it's very important that people understand that Detroit is a living doc, history is a living document, and Detroit is alive, and you know it was just. And also I married a Spartan. So yes, I'm very happy. I love the Detroit Stories. Very excited for that program, and I think it's great what you're doing. 15:00:55 Sarah Park Dahlen: Paula, we do have a question from the audience. "How do you navigate with difficult emotions while you're writing? Do you ever struggle to write because of overwhelming emotions? How do you cope?" She's curious as a writer herself. 15:01:08 Paula Yoo: Oh, that's a great question, you know. I will say it didn't hit me until later that I was upset. I did cry. Sometimes when I'm writing, I get like "Oh I'm so sad." I bawl at everything, and I cry at hallmark movies. I cry at everything, and you know, I was like oh! And I would cry, but occasionally I would just get into a bad mood. I'd start yelling at my husband because he didn't clean out the kitty litter box, and he's like, "Calm down. I just forgot." But I'm like, "You don't understand!" and then I realized, oh I'm upset because I just read the autopsy report, you know? And it's...they talk about secondary trauma as a writer, because you definitely do go through that. So I will say that I hope one day to write a book about my cats because I need a break. You know. I was all, it's so, it is very hard, but then I always tell myself if I'm going through secondary trauma, what was it like to witness Vincent being beaten to death? What was it like to watch your store burn down? What was it like to identify your granddaughter's body at the morgue? I have to suffer because they suffered, and by me suffering, hopefully I can lighten the burden somehow in their souls. So that's what...I think it's part of my responsibility to do that. But I will say as a writer, also remember to self-care, because it can spiral, so remember to take a break and walk away and hug your cat. 15:02:31 Sarah Park Dahlen: You're speaking to the right crowd with cats. Thank you so much. I know that we started a little bit late, but we do want to respect your time, and so I just really want to thank Paula for being with us today, for being creative about how to still have you here in the first half of the presentation, and also to all of you for being here, for being patient with us, and for caring about this really important topic. As an Asian-American who did not see myself in youth literature, did not know any of these histories when I was growing up, I can't tell you how much it means to me to be living and working at a time and to be committed alongside with all of you, to sharing these stories and books with young people in the hopes that we will not only have great reading experiences, but also work to make a better world together. So thank you so much, everybody. Thank you to the CCB for hosting this event, and Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas and the University of Michigan for co-hosting. And I hope to see you again at one of our future events. So thank you. 15:03:40 Paula Yoo: Thank you. 15:03:41 Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: Thank you!