On Friday night I attended a screening of the documentary "Vincent Who?" hosted by the Philadelphia Mayor's Commission on Asian American Affairs. If you haven't heard of Vincent Chin (and I hadnt before attending this) this is the basic story: On June 19, 1982, Vincent Chin, a 27 year old Chinese American went to a Detroit bar with friends to celebrate his upcoming wedding. Two white auto workers taunted him saying, "It's because of you motherf***ers that we're out of work!". At the time the American auto industry was facing stiff competition from cars imported from Japan. They beat him outside with a baseball bat and 4 days later he died from head wounds. Apparently they mistook Chin for Japanese. Several hundren "wedding guests" attended his funeral instead. The two were sentenced to 3 years probation and some fees. The judge commented that these "weren't the kind of men you send to jail". Outraged Asian American citizens demanded reviews of the case to determine if the two men had violated Chin's civil rights, that this was an attack based on Chin's race. After overturned convictions and retrials, both men were acquitted of all charges and neither spent a single day in jail. Lily Chin, Vincent's mother, left the US, a country where she felt no justiced existed, to live in China. I was really moved by this story. I think if I had been watching it by myself I would have cried. To me, it was obvious that this was a racist attack, but back then, it wasn't so obvious. This case launched a movement within the Asian American community to galvanize and come together to fight back. There have obviously been numerous other instances since this incident that have dealt with civil rights issues, one of the examples given in the documentary was where the Japanese community really stood up for the South Eastern/Middle East community after 9/11 because they didn't want them to go through the same thing as they had in the 1940s (internment camps duringn WWII). Asked why they were so passionate about doing so, one activist responded that "If we continue to be divided, we will never be united." Such a powerful statement. And I really did feel empowered after attending this, to really continue being an activist in the Asian American community through my participation in OCA, which has allowed me to work with other groups such as the Anti-Defamation League. This case happened 27 years ago, but the effects of it still resonate today. We should not forget the Vincent Chins and the Matthew Shephards of the world. All of us have a voice--what will we do with it? | 
