Vincent Chin

Vincent Chin was bludgeoned to death in 1982 Detroit. A second generation Chinese American, Chin was singled out and blamed for Japan's successful auto industry: “It’s because of you we’re out of work,” two ex-Chrysler employees shouted as they cracked his head open with a baseball bat.

Admittedly, my study of Asian history/culture is shamefully lacking. My attention was primarily captured by this story because it was referenced as a having a impact on Americans similar to Emmett Till's murder (14 year old Till was killed in 1955 for speaking to a white woman and the photos of his brutalized body were a motivating factor in beginning the classical African American civil rights movement).

A New York Times article captured the response to Chin's murder:

The killing catalyzed political activity among Asian-Americans — whose numbers had steadily increased since the 1965 overhaul of immigration laws but who then represented only about 1.5 percent of the population — as never before. “Remember Vincent Chin” turned into a rallying cry; for the first time, Asian-Americans of every background angrily protested in cities across the country. For all that Asians had been through — racial exclusion, starting with a ban on Chinese migrant labor in 1882; the unconstitutional detention of Japanese-Americans during World War II; the legacy of America’s wars in the Philippines, Korea and Vietnam — no single episode involving an individual Asian-American had ever had such an effect before. And none has since.

I definitely am interested in watching these two documentaries Who Killed Vincent Chin? and Vincent Who?. I guess I'm particularly interested in how this incident was "used" in ensuing civil rights activism.