Happy birthday, Vincent Chin. Today would have been your 64th birthday. We’ll honor your m
Happy birthday, Vincent Chin. Today would have been your 64th birthday. We’ll honor your memory by continuing to fight white supremacist violence and institutional racism. On June 19, 1982, Chinese American Vincent Chin was out spending the night with friends, celebrating his bachelor party in Detroit. That’s when Vincent crossed paths with two white auto workers, who killed him with a baseball bat. These racist men, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, blamed competition from Japanese auto manufacturers for rising white unemployment. Assuming that Vincent was Japanese, they launched an attack.Despite the violent and racially-motivated murder, the men received a plea bargain and were sentenced to probation and fines. Even after two civil rights trials and a civil suit, neither Ebens nor Nitz have spent a day in jail.Vincent Chin’s death galvanized Asian Americans into fighting for racial justice and civil rights. One such activist was Helen Zia, whose journalism and organizing played a crucial role in the movement to find justice for Vincent. -- source link
#apahm#chinese american#detroit#hate crime#civil rights#vincent chin#asian american#us history