Two white auto workers beat 27-year-old Vincent Chin to death with a baseball bat during his bachelor party in Detroit in 1982, but his loved ones’ cries for justice fell on deaf ears.
Twelve days passed before any media outlets reported Chin’s murder by men who blamed Asian manufacturers for the downfall of the city’s main auto industry, and none acknowledged the racism in his murder at the time. The defendants pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to three years probation. Judge Charles Kaufman argued, “These are not the kind of men you send to prison.”
Injustice has spurred Asian Americans to unite across ethnic and cultural lines. Hundreds of people protested the outcome of the trial in downtown Detroit. Chin’s mother traveled the country sharing her story and pushing for a federal civil rights lawsuit.
More than four decades later, activists still fight to ensure that Chin is not forgotten, saying that his story inspires advocacy across the country. Law students reenact 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 case was what gripped them,” says writer and filmmaker Curtis Chin. “That’s what brought them to the table.”
After the judge spared Vincent Chin’s killers, Curtis Chin – then 14 – took his parents’ typewriter and wrote indignant letters to newspaper editors. He had found his calling.
Instead of taking over his family’s Chinese restaurant, Curtis Chin – who is no relation to the man killed on June 23, 1982 – spent the next 30 years elevating Asian American Voicesand retelling the story of Vincent Chin and racism in 1980s Detroit.
For Helen Zia, an Asian-American activist who moved to Detroit in the 1970s, Chin’s case exposed the glaring 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 a federal trial against Chin’s killers. One was acquitted of civil rights violations 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 his final moments and the anti-Asian slurs used by his attackers, among other details. Activists said the Detroit Free Presswho first reported in the FBI documents that they were not notified about the file, and the agency did not provide a reason for its release.
Last year, Zia launched the Vincent Chin Institute, an advocacy organization to combat hate against Asian Americans.
Chin’s case had an impact that went beyond the defense. Harvard Law School students reenacted the trials of their attackers to highlight the shortcomings of the legal system. And his murder inspired documentaries, a podcast and a film, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?”
Vincent Chin was a victim of brutal racial violence, but from that tragedy emerged “a chorus of Asian-American voices,” says Curtis Chin.
The auto workers who attacked Chin blamed foreign vehicle manufacturers for difficulties in the U.S. auto industry.
This fear of foreign economic threat parallels modern “anti-China hysteria and scapegoating,” says Cynthia Choi, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, pointing to attacks on Asians by people who accuse them of culpability in the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What’s different for our community today is that we are speaking out. We’re talking loud,” says Choi.
Founded in 2020, Stop AAPI Hate advocates for policy change and collects comprehensive data on acts of hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The group has documented thousands of cases across the country, including verbal and physical abuse and discrimination in business and education.
“Nearly 50% of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders reported experiencing some form of racial hatred in the past year,” says Choi.
Advocates say there is still considerable work to be done.
No comprehensive history of Asian Americans is included in the core elementary and secondary school curricula. Asked to name a prominent Asian American in a recent researchmost Americans responded “I can’t think of one” or Jackie Chan, who is not American.
“For most Americans, we don’t even exist,” says Zia, citing lack of visibility as a key factor in perpetuating Asian-American stereotypes.
John Yang, president and CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, highlights the harm of stereotyping.
“In terms of job opportunities, we are labeled as perpetual foreigners,” says Yang. “Asian Americans are not promoted at the same rate. We do not employ executives. We don’t sit on boards in the same way as other Americans.”
Discrimination also extends to housing. The Urban Institute, a think tank that conducts economic and political research, reports that Asian-American buyers view 18.8% fewer properties overall compared to white buyers. However, the stereotype of Asian Americans as model minority leads some fair housing advocates to exclude Asian Americans from their efforts.
“Everyone is worried about whether an Asian American is really an American and therefore they are not seeing the same houses,” says Yang.
On Sunday, dozens of residents stood with their heads bowed beneath the gate of Boston’s Chinatown to remember 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 organized a vigil for Chin every June 23 for six years. Even as media attention has waned, his dedication to Chin’s memory has not diminished.
“We’re in this for the long haul,” says Lee. “Because it’s the right thing to do, not because it’s the popular thing to do.”
A group of local dignitaries joined the remembrance, as did 16 Asian-American middle 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 what he went through,” says Lee. “They stand on the shoulders of giants, and Vincent Chin was a giant.”
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