Monday, July 30, 2007

APAs for Progress Announces Wrap Up, Outcomes of National Townhalls on Hate Crimes

In follow up to our posting from June... we've posted a short item on the Village summarizing some of the follow-up reports from APAs for Progress about the summer series of "townhall" events addressing hate crimes and commemoratig the 25th anniversary of the Vincent Chin's murder.

In the end, events featuring expert panel discussions and screening of the film Who Killed Vincent Chin? were held at 14 sites, sponsored by APAP and partners including many leading local and national groups, and reaching an estimated 1,000 attendees.

While the size and scope of the events varied widely from place to place, the good news is that it created opportunities for diverse Asian Americans to spotlight a scourge affecting all of our subcommunities, to build coalition with other groups targeted for hate discrimination, and to commemorate Chin by discussing issues of social justice in a fresh, contemporary context. In fact, although the series was to officially end by July 19, additional groups in more cities have contacted APAP regarding their interest in hosting townhalls well into the fall. APAP board members also said that the summer's events were filmed, so with luck, some form of the proceedings may some be accessible to much wider audiences who were unable to attend the first time around.

For more bacgkround, see our longer post at the Village, or go directly to the APAP site at http://www.apaforprogress.org/.