Remembrance

Vincent Chin 1955-1982 [Picture from Wikipedia]

It never fails: I always tear up in my Asian 210 class when we are presented a film or documentary.
This week we are viewing "Who Killed Vincent Chin?", a documentary of a Chinese American who was beaten to death by father & son - R. Ebens (superintendent of Chrysler - car co.) and M. Nitz. The son held Vincent up by the armpits while Ebens (father) beat Vincent on the head with a baseball bat. This hate crime took place in Detroit in 1982. At that time, there were "many of the layoffs in Detroit's auto industry, including Nitz in 1979, due to the increasing market share of Japanese automakers, leading to allegations that Chinese-American Vincent Chin received racially charged comments before his death" (Wiki) . [Note: V. Chin is Chinese - not that it's any consolation but my point being that according to the two criminals, there was no difference = ignorance]

The two criminals were taken into custody and ultimately recieved merely a slap on the wrist as the Judge Charles Kaufman convicted them with (a pathetic) manslaughter, NO JAIL TIME, but they did get a $3,000 fine (score! -sarcasm).

Oh, and btw, the two police officers who witnessed this were never informed about the trial and therefore were not there to testify. They had not even been questioned about the happenings of that incident.

If you're interested, I highly recommend the documentary to 'get the full scoop'! It's heartwrenching and hits harder for me bc Vincent's mother reminds me of my own grandmother who speaks the same dialect and came to America like every other immigrant - in hopes of a better life & more opportunities for her children than her own had allowed.

I never mean to come off as an annoying advocate who just babbles on about how unfair things are to minorities etc, etc. However, I feel that voicing these events that had indeed occurred, sheds light on injustices that still occur today. I never would have been exposed to these happenings if it weren't for this class and I am just grateful that I am being familiarized with more information so I can hopefully make some sort of difference however big or small. It's the stories of the Vincent Chins, real people, individuals just like us that have family, friends, futures, goals and accomplishments who are abruptly obliterated, that motivate me to somehow make changes, make a difference.