[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 16742-16743]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




COMMEMORATING THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FATAL BEATING OF VINCENT CHIN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL M. HONDA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 19, 2007

  Mr. HONDA. Madam Speaker, as Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific 
American Caucus, I rise today in remembrance of Vincent Chin on the 
twenty-fifth anniversary of his attack.
  On June 19, 1982, Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, was brutally and 
fatally attacked by two white men who had recently been laid-off by an 
American automaker. Blaming their lost jobs on the rise of Japanese car 
companies, Chin's attackers, mistaking him for Japanese, sought 
retribution.
  Other than residing in Detroit, Michigan, Vincent Chin had no 
connection to the automobile industry. Vincent Chin, soon to be married 
and celebrating his bachelor party, wasn't seeking trouble the night of 
his attack. Chin was attacked and killed simply for being of Asian 
descent. To add further insult, Chin's murderers charged with, and 
pleaded guilty to, a mere manslaughter charge. For murdering a man, 
each received a sentence of only three years probation and a $3,000 
fine--a mere slap on the wrist. Neither killer ever served any jail 
time.
  The attack on Vincent Chin, his untimely passing, and the insulting 
lack of justice and punishment for his murders galvanized a community 
that had not previously come together so broadly. For the first time, 
there emerged a self-defined Asian American and Pacific Islander racial 
identification that went beyond the progressive college-educated youth 
and into the working-class segments of the community. Chinese, 
Japanese, Korean, and Filipino; waiters, lawyers, and grandmothers came 
together with a heightened awareness of the shared experience of racism 
and discrimination faced by Asian American and Pacific Islanders, 
regardless of ethnic and socioeconomic background. Twenty-five years 
after his fatal attack, Vincent Chin remains a contemporary martyr and 
rallying point for the Asian American and Pacific Islander Movement.
  While today is indeed a day to remember and honor the life and death 
of Vincent Chin, it is also a reminder that hate crimes are not a 
memory in a regrettable past. Unfortunately, the past twenty-five years 
remain littered with physical and verbal assaults and murders based in 
hate. Listed here are a few such acts:
  January 29, 1996, Thien Minh Ly, shot and killed in Tustin, 
California.
  October 15, 1998, Kanu Patel and Mukesh Patek, shot and killed in 
Camp Springs, Maryland.
  August 10, 1999, Joseph Ileto, shot and killed in Chatsworth, 
California.
  September 15, 2001, Balbir Singh Sohdi, shot and killed in Mesa, 
Arizona.
  September 15, 2001, Waqar Hasan and Vasudev Patel, shot and killed 
near Dallas, Texas.
  July 30, 2006, Iqbal Singh, stabbed in Santa Clara, CA, My home 
district.
  October 21, 2006, Robert Stanford, Song Sun Lee and Kam Yan Li, shot 
and killed in San Francisco, CA.
  March 16, 2007, Marie Martinez, beaten on an MTA bus in New York 
City.
  Madam Speaker, this small sampling from across this nation shows us 
that hate crimes remains an issue to be heard and combated by all 
Members of Congress and all Americans. I applaud my colleagues in the 
House of Representatives for recently passing the Local Law Enforcement 
Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007, H.R. 1592; recognizing the 
pervasive and contemporary nature of hate crimes in this nation. The 
death of Vincent Chin and the injuries and death suffered by the 
countless other victims of hate crimes serve as a heavy reminder for 
this nation to combat hate and continue in its quest for freedom and 
justice for all Americans.

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