This year is the 40-year anniversary of the murder of Vincent Chin who was 27-years old at the time. Vincent was killed by 2 men in a fight in Detroit at a time when anti-Japanese hate was at a high due to "they're taking our jobs!" sentiment in the US as Japanese auto-makers started to outpace their American counterparts due to innovation and developments. Chin wasn't Japanese though (he was Chinese-American) but that ultimately didn't matter (maybe because we "all look the same"?).
The murder and subsequent ruling in court sparked outrage in the Asian community after the 2 men were sentenced to probation and $3,000 fines, along with a $780 bill to cover court costs and zero jail time that judge Kaufman reasoned saying, "These weren't the kind of men you send to jail... You don't make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal."
One positive thing that came from this incident was that it was the first time a national coalition, that was both multiracial and multicultural, was created to support an Asian American civil rights issue.
I see parallels today with the anti-Asian incidents that rose during the pandemic in both Canada and the US when an entire region's people were/are demonized for perceived injustices, but I'm hopeful that less and less people these days are this way compared to the 80s. There's still work to be done, but a lot of progress has been made.
https://twitter.com/user/status/1537812313016868864
Remembering Vincent Chin
