Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2023 - Day 23

On the 23rd of June, 1982,?Vincent Chin ?was beaten to death in Detroit, Michigan.?

The baseball bat bludgeoning of Vincent Chin occurred when unfounded, rampant hate blamed Japan, and anyone who looked Japanese, for the collapse of the US auto industry. Vincent, who was celebrating his upcoming wedding at a Detroit strip club, was racially targeted, stalked and beaten to death after his killer was heard to say, “It’s because of you motherf–s that we’re out of work.”

The brutal killing was witnessed by dozens of people and baseball fans on their way home from a Detroit Tigers game.?The killers,?Ronald Ebens ?(a superintendent at Chrysler Motors) and Michael Nitz (Ebens’ stepson), were initially charged with second-degree murder but were only sentenced to probation and $3,000 fines. Ebens and Nitz never spent a day in jail.?“These weren’t the kind of men you send to jail,” wrote Michigan Judge Charles Kaufman in a letter to a Detroit civil rights group protesting the decision.