U.S.A.
July 1, 2024
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 13
The brutal killing of a Detroit man in 1982 inspires
decades of Asian American activism nationwide
By Ryan Doan-Nguyen
The Associated Press
wo white autoworkers bludgeoned 27-year-old
Chinese American 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 killing by men who blamed Asian manufacturers
for the downfall of the city’s mainstay auto industry, and
none acknowledged the racism in his killing at the time.
The defendants pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were
sentenced to three years’ probation. Circuit judge Charles
Kaufman reasoned, “These aren’t the kind of men you
send to jail.”
The injustice spurred Asian Americans to unite across
ethnic and cultural lines. Hundreds protested the trial’s
outcome in downtown Detroit. Chin’s mother travelled the
country sharing his story and pushing for a federal civil
rights prosecution.
More than four decades later, activists still fight to
ensure Chin is not forgotten, saying his story inspires
advocacy nationwide. Law students reenact his trial,
Hollywood adapted his story into a movie, and Asian
Americans remember the impact of his killing on their
struggle for racial justice and equality.
“For a whole generation of Asian American activists,
the Vincent Chin case was the case that got them
involved,” says writer and filmmaker Curtis Chin. “It was
the thing that 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 elevating Asian
American voices, and recounting Vincent Chin’s story and
the racism of 1980s Detroit.
For Helen Zia, an Asian American activist who moved to
Detroit in the 1970s, Chin’s case laid bare the glaring
injustices that her community faced.
Lacking any local organizations to advocate for Asian
American civil rights, Zia co-founded American Citizens
for Justice, which helped to 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 previously unseen witness interviews
with descriptions of his final moments and the anti-Asian
slurs his attackers used, among other details. Activists
told the Detroit Free Press, which first reported on 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
T
advocacy organization to counter hatred against Asian
Americans.
Chin’s case has had an impact beyond advocacy.
Students at Harvard Law School have reenacted the trials
of his attackers to highlight shortcomings in the legal
system. And his killing has inspired documentaries, a
podcast, and a movie, Who Killed Vincent Chin?
Vincent Chin was a victim of brutal, racial violence, but
from that tragedy emerged “a chorus of Asian American
voices,” Curtis Chin says.
Considerable work ahead
The autoworkers who attacked Chin blamed foreign
vehicle manufacturers for hardships in the U.S. auto
industry.
This fear of foreign economic threat parallels modern
“anti-China hysteria and scapegoating,” says Stop AAPI
Hate co-founder Cynthia Choi, pointing to attacks on
Asians by people accusing them of culpability in the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“What’s different for our community today is that we
are speaking out. We are speaking out loudly,” Choi says.
Established in 2020, Stop AAPI Hate advocates for
policy change and collects comprehensive data on acts of
hatred against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
The group has documented thousands of cases
nationwide, including verbal and physical abuse, and
discrimination in business and education.
“Close to 50% of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
reported that they experienced some form of race-based
hate in the past year,” Choi says.
Advocates say there’s still considerable work to be done.
No comprehensive history of Asian Americans is
included in core K-12 curricula. Asked to name a
prominent Asian American in a recent survey, most
Americans responded “I can’t think of one” or Jackie
ACTIVISM INSPIRATION. Vincent Chin’s headstone is seen
at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Detroit in this file photo. Detroit is helping
to honor Chin, a Chinese American man who was beaten to death more
than 40 years ago by two white men who never served jail time. More
than four decades later, activists still fight to ensure Chin is not forgotten,
saying his story inspires advocacy nationwide. (AP Photo/Corey Williams,
File)
Chan, who is not American.
“We don’t even exist to most Americans,” Zia says, citing
lack of visibility as a key driver in the perpetuation of
Asian American stereotypes.
John Yang, the president and executive director of
Asian Americans Advancing Justice, underscores the
damage of stereotypes.
“In terms of job opportunities, we are pigeonholed as
perpetual foreigners,” Yang says. “Asian Americans don’t
get promoted at the same rate. We don’t occupy C-suites.
We don’t occupy boards in the same way that other
Americans do.”
Discrimination also extends to housing. The Urban
Institute, a think tank that conducts economic and policy
research, reports that Asian American buyers are shown
18.8% fewer properties overall compared to white buyers.
Yet the stereotype of Asian Americans as the model
minority leads some fair housing advocates to exclude
Asian Americans from their efforts.
“Everyone is concerned about whether an Asian
American is truly an American, and so they’re not being
shown the same houses,” Yang says. “They’re not being
afforded the same opportunities.”
Standing on the shoulders of giants
Two weeks ago, dozens of residents stood with their
heads bowed beneath Boston’s Chinatown gate to
remember Chin. Wearing t-shirts reading “STOP ASIAN
HATE,” they arranged candles in the shape of a heart 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 faded, their dedication to Chin’s memory has not
wavered.
“We’re in it for the long haul,” Lee says. “Because it’s the
right thing to do, not because it’s the popular thing to do.”
A collection of local dignitaries joined the remembrance,
as did 16 Asian American elementary and high school
students whom 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 about the experience
that he went through,” Lee says. “They are standing on
the shoulders of giants, and Vincent Chin was a giant.”
The Associated Press receives financial support from the
Sony Global Social Justice Fund to expand certain
coverage areas. AP is solely responsible for content.
Filipinos across the globe honor and celebrate long-sought independence
Continued from page 9
baseball team held its first-ever Filipino Heritage
Celebration at a game against the Los Angeles Angels.
Amilyn Pierce, who is part Filipino and the
Diamondbacks’ vice president of government affairs,
credits a team business consultant who is also Filipino,
Hunter Fitton, with pitching the Independence Day
event. He pointed out high presence of Filipinos in the
state. He also recruited local Filipino dance groups and
food trucks. Diamondbacks caps with the flag of the
Philippines also sold out.
“I was surprised to find that out that there was such a
huge Filipino community,” Pierce said. “I just really love
that the team has made it a priority to reach outside of
maybe what someone might think is the normal or the
stereotypical demographic.”
Celebrations in Europe
Across countries in Europe, there were large gatherings
with longstanding reputations. Given that the Filipino
diaspora is one of the largest diaspora populations in the
world, it’s not surprising how many celebrations there
are, said Chu, the Amherst professor.
In the Netherlands, the Kalayann Fiesta Foundation
Netherlands held an Independence Day Picnic. Ice
Seguerra, a popular Filipino actor and singer-songwriter,
was the guest performer.
Journey Torres, who immigrated to the Netherlands
from the Philippines in 1999 when he was 8 years old,
recalls going to a Philippine Independence Day event in
Amsterdam two years later. He described it as having the
atmosphere of a small “family barbecue party.” There
weren’t many other Filipinos then. But by the 2010s, jobs
and cultural exchange programs brought more. The event
gained more notoriety with Filipinos coming from
Germany and Belgium.
“Now there are also busses that go from Belgium to the
Netherlands,” Torres said. “I believe it’s one of the first
Philippine Independence Day celebrations that was
organized here in mainland Europe.”
The Philippine Independence Day Association in Rome
has been organizing events for more than 15 years in
hotels, parks, and piazzas. They seem to keep getting
bigger and drawing Filipinos from all over Italy, said
Jaiane Morales, the event’s programming deputy. This
year’s daylong fete took place inside a concert hall but
with Pinoy food stalls outside that, among other fare,
served the traditional Filipino ice cream dessert of halo
halo as well as the Italian classic gelato. The goal is to
have a feast of food and “Filipiniana costumes,” Morales
said.
The theme of the event’s talent show, “Balik Saya” or
“returning joy,” is meant to foster meaningful connection
abroad. Millions of Filipinos have departed the
Philippines, a leading source of global labor, in search of
jobs and better opportunities to earn and provide for loved
ones they’ve left behind.
“If they are missing their families at home, then this is
one way of easing that loneliness,” Morales said.
Associated Press writer Jim Gomez
in Manila contributed to this report.
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