APAICS | Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies

NCAPA statement on the 30th anniversary of Vincent Chin’s murder

Remembering Vincent Chin

WASHINGTON, DC - The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) honors the legacy of Vincent Chin, who 30 years ago was murdered in Detroit, the victim of a hate crime. The racially motivated murder of Chin proved to be a turning point in the Asian Pacific American movement, when largely disparate Asian communities began to come together to address common concerns and for the first time to forge the emergence of the Asian Pacific American identity. 

Vincent Chin died on June 23, 1982 after being brutally attacked by two out-of-work Detroit auto-workers who blamed Japanese competition for job losses in the U.S.  auto industry. Chin, who was of Chinese descent, was assaulted with baseball bats while attending his own bachelor party. His attackers never received any jail time for his murder.

Out of the movement that began after Vincent Chin’s death, NCAPA was formed to provide a national voice for Asian Pacific Americans. Today, NCAPA members continue to combat many of the same issues that were highlighted by the Vincent Chin case 30 years ago, including the use of xenophobic rhetoric in the political sphere, racial profiling, hate crimes, and more recently, the hazing and bullying of Asian Pacific Americans in the military and schools. Our collective work on behalf of the Asian Pacific American community continues now as it did then, with an unyielding commitment to equality and justice for all.

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