It Matters: Revisiting Vincent Chin and His Historic Impact on the Asian American Movement

Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Time: 5pm – 6pm PDT
Register for free here: camla.org/ItMatters

Chinese American Museum (CAM) invite you to join author Paula Yoo and booktuber Pam Ng for “It Matters: Revisiting Vincent Chin and His Historic Impact on the Asian American Movement” on Tuesday, May 4th from 5 – 6 pm PDT. 

Paula and Pam will discuss themes explored in Yoo’s book, “From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement.” Listen in as Paula and Pam talk about the tragedy of Vincent Chin, the resonating wounds of racial injustice, and the present call to end discrimination towards Asian Americans so many years later.

This program is presented by the Chinese American Museum in collaboration with the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (Los Angeles), the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, Grand Park, East West Players, Visual Communications, Eso Won Book, ACT to CHANGE, JANM & NextShark. 

About Vincent Chin:

Vincent Jen Chin (陳果仁 May 18, 1955 – June 23, 1982) was a Chinese American draftsman who was beaten to death by two white men, Chrysler plant supervisor Ronald Ebens and his stepson, laid-off autoworker Michael Nitz.

Ebens and Nitz assailed Chin following a brawl that took place at a strip club in Highland Park, Michigan, where Chin had been celebrating his bachelor party with friends in advance of his upcoming wedding. They apparently assumed Chin was of Japanese descent and are alleged to have used racial slurs as they attacked him. Ebens and Nitz blamed him for the success of Japan's auto industry, despite the fact that Chin was of Chinese descent.

At the time, Metro Detroit was a powder keg of racial animosity toward Asian Americans, specifically as the penetration of Japanese automotive imports in the U.S. domestic market hastened the decline of Detroit's Big Three. Resentful workers laid the blame for recent layoffs on Japanese competition.

Chin was taken to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where a nurse told his childhood friend that "he has no chance" and that "his brain was dead." He died of his injuries four days later.

Ebens and Nitz were charged with second-degree murder but bargained the charges down to manslaughter and pleaded guilty in 1983. They were ordered to pay $3,000 and serve three years' probation, with no jail time. While Ebens and Nitz never denied the brawl, they claimed the fight was not racially motivated and said they did not use racial epithets. 

The lenient sentence led to a vocal outcry from Asian Americans. The president of the Detroit Chinese Welfare Council said it amounted to a "$3,000 license to kill" Chinese Americans. As a result, the case has been viewed as a critical turning point for Asian American civil rights engagement and a rallying cry for stronger federal hate crime legislation.