The brutal murder of a Detroit man in 1982 inspires decades of activism by Asian Americans across the country

Two white auto workers bludgeoned Vincent Chin, a 27-year-old Chinese American, to death with a baseball bat at his bachelor party in Detroit in 1982, but calls for justice from those close to him fell on deaf ears.

Twelve days passed before the media reported Chin’s murder, committed by men who blamed Asian automakers for the fall of the city’s auto industry. None of them recognized at the time the racist nature of his murder. The defendants pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and were sentenced to three years of probation. Judge Charles Kaufman said that “these are not the kind of men we send to prison.”

The injustice has prompted Asian Americans to unite across ethnic and cultural lines. Hundreds of people protested the trial’s outcome in downtown Detroit. Chin’s mother traveled across the country to tell her story and lobby for federal civil rights charges.

More than four decades later, activists I’m still fighting to keep Chin safe He is not forgotten, and his story inspires activists across the country. Law students reenacted his trial, Hollywood adapted his story into a film, and Asian Americans remember the impact of his murder on their fight for racial justice and equality.

“For an entire generation of Asian American activists, the Vincent Chin affair was the case that got them involved,” says writer and filmmaker Curtis Chin. “That’s what brought them to the table.”

A chorus of Asian American voices

After the judge spared Vincent Chin’s killers, Curtis Chin, then 14, grabbed his parents’ typewriter and wrote outraged letters to newspaper editors. He had found his calling.

Instead of taking over his family’s Chinese restaurant, Curtis Chin — who is not related to the man killed on June 23, 1982 — spent the next 30 years raising Asian American Voicesand telling the story of Vincent Chin and the racism of 1980s Detroit.

For Helen Zia, an Asian American activist who moved to Detroit in the 1970s, Chin’s case highlighted the gross injustices her community faced.

In the absence of local organizations to advocate for Asian American civil rights, Zia co-founded American Citizens for Justice, which helped secure federal trials against Chin’s killers. One was acquitted of civil rights charges, and the other was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. His conviction was overturned on appeal.

On June 20, the FBI released a 602-page file on Chin’s death, revealing never-before-seen witness interviews with descriptions of her final moments and anti-Asian slurs used by her attackers, among other details. Activists said The Detroit Free Presswho first reported the FBI documents, said he had not been informed of the file’s existence and that the agency had not provided a reason for its release.

Last year, Zia launched the Vincent Chin Institute, an advocacy organization aimed at combating hate against Asian Americans.

Chin’s case has had an impact beyond advocacy. Harvard Law School students have reenacted the trials of his attackers to highlight the failings of the justice system. And his murder has inspired documentaries, a podcast and a film, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?”

Vincent Chin was the victim of brutal racial violence, but out of that tragedy emerged “a chorus of Asian American voices,” says Curtis Chin.

Considerable work ahead

The autoworkers who attacked Chin blamed foreign automakers for the difficulties facing the U.S. auto industry.

This fear of a foreign economic threat echoes modern “anti-China hysteria and scapegoating,” says Cynthia Choi, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, noting attacks on Asians by people who accuse them of guilt in the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What’s different for our community today is that we speak openly. We do it loud and clear,” says Choi.

Founded in 2020, Stop AAPI Hate advocates for policy change and collects comprehensive data on hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The group has documented thousands of cases across the country, including verbal and physical violence, as well as discrimination in businesses and education.

“Nearly 50% of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders reported experiencing some form of racial hatred in the past year,” Choi said.

Advocates say there is still much to be done.

No complete history of Asian Americans is included in core K-12 curricula. They were asked to name a prominent Asian American in a recent surveymost Americans said “I don’t think so” or Jackie Chan, who is not American.

“For most Americans, we don’t even exist,” Zia says, citing lack of visibility as one of the main drivers of perpetuating Asian American stereotypes.

John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, highlights the harmful effects of stereotypes.

“In terms of employment opportunities, we are classified as perpetual foreigners“, says Yang. “Asian Americans are not promoted at the same rate. We don’t occupy C-suites. We don’t occupy corporate boards the same way as other Americans.

Discrimination also extends to housing. The Urban Institute, a think tank that conducts economic and policy research, reports that Asian American buyers see 18.8% fewer properties overall compared to white buyers. Yet the stereotype of Asian Americans as model minority led some fair housing advocates to exclude Asian Americans from their efforts.

“Everyone wonders if an Asian American is really an American, that’s why we don’t show them the same houses,” Yang says. “They don’t have the same opportunities.”

Standing on the shoulders of giants

On Sunday, dozens of residents stood with bowed heads under the gate of Boston’s Chinatown to pay their respects to Chin. Wearing T-shirts reading “STOP ASIAN HATE,” they arranged heart-shaped candles and displayed a portrait of Chin with his name written in Chinese and “May 18, 1955 – June 23, 1982.”

Wilson Lee, co-founder of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance Boston Lodge and the Chinese American Heritage Foundation, said he and his wife have held a vigil for Chin every June 23 for six years. Even as media attention has faded, their dedication to Chin’s memory has not wavered.

“We’re in this for the long haul,” Lee says. “Because it’s the right thing to do, not because it’s the popular thing to do.”

A group of local dignitaries joined the commemoration, as did 16 Asian American elementary and high school students who Lee described as “stakeholders.” They held orange lilies and yellow flowers pressed to their chests.

“We need to make sure that future generations, especially our young people, know the experience he went through,” Lee says. “They stand on the shoulders of giants, and Vincent Chin was a giant. »

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