IN MEMORY OF VINCENT CHIN
In June 1982, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, two white autoworkers who were unemployed because of the US auto industry was in the midst of a long decline in global competitiveness, walked into a bar with murder on their mind. They walked up to the first Asian-American they saw, Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American who was celebrating his upcoming wedding with a couple of friends. Calling him "Jap," Ebens and Nitz cursed at Chin: "It's because of you motherfuckers that we're out of work." A fistfight broke out, and Chin left the bar.
But Ebens and Nitz followed, and, retrieving a baseball bat from their car, chased Chin through the streets. When they finally cornered him in front of a McDonald's, Nitz held Chin while Ebens swung the bat across Chin's shins and then bludgeoned Chin to death by shattering his skull. For their crime, Ebens and Nitz did not spend one day in jail: allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter, they were sentenced to three years' probation and fined $3780 each.
I share this story (which I heavily quote from Ronald Takaki's "Strangers from a Different Shore") for two reasons this morning. First, we live in times in this country, when, like the automobile industry of the 1980's, certain key industry sectors are losing ground to competitors outside of the US. There is political frustration, as job losses are of course unpopular realities for which politicians must have some explanation. I wonder how much of this frustration will spill into vigilante behavior on the street level.
I also share this story because I believe that it is human nature to read of Ebens and Nitz and think them horrific creatures. Implicit in such a judgment is the belief that we ourselves are incapable of such horrible offenses, of such angry bigotry. And yet I must admit that I find that kind of sinfulness in my own heart. A recurring theme in my blogs is that racism is still a problem in our country because we are all still, at heart, a little racist inside. Far from simply vilifying the Ebens' and Nitz's of society, and thus allaying our own guilty consciences, I hope that blatant acts of racism can open honest thought about our own guilt, and begin free dialogue about institutional and unspoken bigotry.
Sadly, I feel that many in our country are closed off to such a discussion, and unwilling to consider the sin in their own hearts. And as a result, even as we delude ourselves into thinking we are getting closer to Martin Luther King's "dream," we as a nation move further and further away from it. May the murder of Vincent Chin remind us that all is not well on the racial front.
In June 1982, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, two white autoworkers who were unemployed because of the US auto industry was in the midst of a long decline in global competitiveness, walked into a bar with murder on their mind. They walked up to the first Asian-American they saw, Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American who was celebrating his upcoming wedding with a couple of friends. Calling him "Jap," Ebens and Nitz cursed at Chin: "It's because of you motherfuckers that we're out of work." A fistfight broke out, and Chin left the bar.
But Ebens and Nitz followed, and, retrieving a baseball bat from their car, chased Chin through the streets. When they finally cornered him in front of a McDonald's, Nitz held Chin while Ebens swung the bat across Chin's shins and then bludgeoned Chin to death by shattering his skull. For their crime, Ebens and Nitz did not spend one day in jail: allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter, they were sentenced to three years' probation and fined $3780 each.
I share this story (which I heavily quote from Ronald Takaki's "Strangers from a Different Shore") for two reasons this morning. First, we live in times in this country, when, like the automobile industry of the 1980's, certain key industry sectors are losing ground to competitors outside of the US. There is political frustration, as job losses are of course unpopular realities for which politicians must have some explanation. I wonder how much of this frustration will spill into vigilante behavior on the street level.
I also share this story because I believe that it is human nature to read of Ebens and Nitz and think them horrific creatures. Implicit in such a judgment is the belief that we ourselves are incapable of such horrible offenses, of such angry bigotry. And yet I must admit that I find that kind of sinfulness in my own heart. A recurring theme in my blogs is that racism is still a problem in our country because we are all still, at heart, a little racist inside. Far from simply vilifying the Ebens' and Nitz's of society, and thus allaying our own guilty consciences, I hope that blatant acts of racism can open honest thought about our own guilt, and begin free dialogue about institutional and unspoken bigotry.
Sadly, I feel that many in our country are closed off to such a discussion, and unwilling to consider the sin in their own hearts. And as a result, even as we delude ourselves into thinking we are getting closer to Martin Luther King's "dream," we as a nation move further and further away from it. May the murder of Vincent Chin remind us that all is not well on the racial front.
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