Vincent Chin was a hardworking 27-year-old Chinese American draftsman and a waiter who was engaged to be married in June. Chin was harassed and attacked by two white males on June 19, 1982 in a strip club in Michigan. The white males blamed Chin and Japanese for the U.S. auto industry layoffs. Chin and his friends were out celebrating for his bachelor party the two auto workers harassed him calling him anti-Asian racial slurs and saying things like “it’s because of you little m-f-s that we’re out of work” (Frances Kal-Hwa). The two men were kicked out of the bar but they continued to harass and eventually attacked Chin in the parking lot later that night. The two white men looked for Chin and his friends for 30 minutes. Chin was Chinese American not Japanese, when the two white men found Chin and his friends they began their attack. One of the men held Chin while the other man hit him in the head …show more content…
The white men said that the matter was “a simple bar brawl” (Frances Kal-Hwa). When the judged explained the sentencing he said, “These aren’t the kind of men you send to jail. You fit the punishment to the criminal, not the crime” (Frances Kal-Hwa). It was obvious to people following this case that in fact this punishment was “not fair”. This case infuriated the Asian American community and on March 31, 1983 some organizers including Chins mother lobbied for a federal trial for Chins’ murderers. On June 5th, 1984, two years after Chins death, the federal prosecutors charged the two white males of violating Chins civic rights. The defense lawyers won a federal retrial for these two murderers in Cincinnati. The two white men never spent a full day in jail even after the second trial. Chins case was never brought to justice because of this his mother returned to China in noticing that the justice system failed her