He was a year ahead of me in high school. I didn't know him (the school was kind of tracked and people who became draftsmen for the auto industry took classes in a different wing from me), but I sure remember what happened to him. Mind you, if he was the son of the chairman of Toyota that was no justification to murder him.
A friend of mine who fought in WWII once mentioned that he would never forgive the Japanese for Pearl Harbor. That sentiment, I'm sure, played a part in the murder of Vincent Chin.
American auto manufacturers proved their love of their stockholders by spending millions of dollars that could have gone to R & D into fuel economy and pollution control standards (as well as quality control) into lobbying the government (and suing them as well) to keep those standards weak. Japanese auto companies just simply said, "Whatever you set your standards at, we will meet them if not exceed them." Which is why Chrysler poured out multiple versions of their shitty K-Cars to "compete" with Honda and Toyota.
It's all so damn pointless. Such a stupid reason to take the life of another human being. I can't wrap my mind around hating someone that much for no reason except for where they came from.
I know this story. The fact that those assholes got away with it is the kind of justice MAGAts can get behind. Doesn't exactly make me proud to be an American.
What a horrid story...and the judge's comments are sadly, not unique. That's so unacceptable, it makes me so angry...I don't have anything much more coherent because ARGH. But thanks for writing about this.
Why are you surprised that Michael Moore conducted the interview? He was one of the very few filmmakers interested in autoworkers. He helped Ben Hamper ("I, Rivethead") to public notice. <i>Roger & Me</i> put him on the map.
I remember a cartoon about the case, titled "Great Moments in Michigan Justice," that depicted a goofball judge with a Tigers cap on, saying, "So you beat a man to death with a baseball bat? Gee, I used to play a lot of ball when I was young..."
> Since when did whites know the difference between Chinese or Japanese or Koreans? Or between Muslims and Sikhs when whites were committing acts of anti-Asian violence after 9/11? Or between Mexicans and Guatemalans? Part of being white is the fundamental ignorance of other cultures, with all the privilege and violent backing of it that entails.
This is something that the Indian-Americans who vote for Trump -- a minority of Indian-Americans, but not a negligible one -- forget. They like Trump's GOP-standard "cut all the taxes" plan, because many of them are doctors or engineers, i.e. the people who had enough money or prospects to be able to immigrate in the first place. And they like Trump's Islamophobia. But they forget that for lots of Trump's voters, brown is brown is "Mexican" is "Illegal" is "Arab" is "Muslim" is "Terrorist".
Hang on -- I'm one of the GOOD brown people! You mean you don't trust MAGAts rounding up enemies of the state for Steve Bannon's gas chambers to be able to tell the GOOD brown people from the BAD ones? Surely I, a GOOD brown person, will be safe! Therefore I am confident that voting for the Steve Bannon Party will lower the price of breakfast cereal!
> In the mid-’90s, my grandparents came to visit us in Oregon. We ate at a Chinese restaurant. When we went in, some angry customers were leaving, unhappy with the service or something. One of them shouted, “You’d better remember who won the war!” at them.
Thank you for writing such a powerful piece on the flagrant and violent racism of the auto industry. I'm from Michigan, grew up in the '70s and '80s, and EVERYONE in my home town worked at the auto plants in Saginaw, MI., including my dad who was a member of the UAW for 40 years.
I work at a shop so I talk to a lot of gearheads about cars, and at most people will say, "Oh, I guess you guys didn't drive Hondas then, huh?" It's difficult to explain that, no, driving a Japanese car in my hometown at that time would have resulted in a destroyed vehicle if not a complimentary ass beating.
IT WAS VIOLENT. It felt like if I were to plant a "BIDEN/HARRIS 2024" in my current home of blood-red MAGA North Dakota, I could expect at least some vandalism and at worst my home might be set afire.
I appreciate bringing attention to it as so few people outside MI know about it (and even MI has forgotten some of it.
"The judge, Charles Kaufman, stated, “These weren’t the kind of men you send to jail … You don’t make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal.”"
He was a year ahead of me in high school. I didn't know him (the school was kind of tracked and people who became draftsmen for the auto industry took classes in a different wing from me), but I sure remember what happened to him. Mind you, if he was the son of the chairman of Toyota that was no justification to murder him.
A friend of mine who fought in WWII once mentioned that he would never forgive the Japanese for Pearl Harbor. That sentiment, I'm sure, played a part in the murder of Vincent Chin.
Ta, Erik. I didn't remember this story; thanks for reminding me.
American auto manufacturers proved their love of their stockholders by spending millions of dollars that could have gone to R & D into fuel economy and pollution control standards (as well as quality control) into lobbying the government (and suing them as well) to keep those standards weak. Japanese auto companies just simply said, "Whatever you set your standards at, we will meet them if not exceed them." Which is why Chrysler poured out multiple versions of their shitty K-Cars to "compete" with Honda and Toyota.
Omg, the K-Cars...eccchh. Shitty AND ugly.
It's all so damn pointless. Such a stupid reason to take the life of another human being. I can't wrap my mind around hating someone that much for no reason except for where they came from.
I know this story. The fact that those assholes got away with it is the kind of justice MAGAts can get behind. Doesn't exactly make me proud to be an American.
Fuck is appropriate I think.
What a horrid story...and the judge's comments are sadly, not unique. That's so unacceptable, it makes me so angry...I don't have anything much more coherent because ARGH. But thanks for writing about this.
My dad had a lot of friends living in Michigan, but we stopped visiting them in the early 80s. I suspect this murder has a lot to do with it.
Why are you surprised that Michael Moore conducted the interview? He was one of the very few filmmakers interested in autoworkers. He helped Ben Hamper ("I, Rivethead") to public notice. <i>Roger & Me</i> put him on the map.
I remember a cartoon about the case, titled "Great Moments in Michigan Justice," that depicted a goofball judge with a Tigers cap on, saying, "So you beat a man to death with a baseball bat? Gee, I used to play a lot of ball when I was young..."
"Of course Chin was not Japanese. He was Chinese. But when did that stop idiot white people?"
I recently discovered this gem, from the Doobie Brothers' hit song "China Grove":
But every day there's a new thing comin'
The ways of an Oriental view
The sheriff and his buddies
With their samurai swords
You can even hear the music at night...
Er... Doobies... Samurai swords are Japanese.
> Since when did whites know the difference between Chinese or Japanese or Koreans? Or between Muslims and Sikhs when whites were committing acts of anti-Asian violence after 9/11? Or between Mexicans and Guatemalans? Part of being white is the fundamental ignorance of other cultures, with all the privilege and violent backing of it that entails.
This is something that the Indian-Americans who vote for Trump -- a minority of Indian-Americans, but not a negligible one -- forget. They like Trump's GOP-standard "cut all the taxes" plan, because many of them are doctors or engineers, i.e. the people who had enough money or prospects to be able to immigrate in the first place. And they like Trump's Islamophobia. But they forget that for lots of Trump's voters, brown is brown is "Mexican" is "Illegal" is "Arab" is "Muslim" is "Terrorist".
And they think their support of the convicted felon will protect them. Then they have the nerve to be surprised when it doesn't.
Hang on -- I'm one of the GOOD brown people! You mean you don't trust MAGAts rounding up enemies of the state for Steve Bannon's gas chambers to be able to tell the GOOD brown people from the BAD ones? Surely I, a GOOD brown person, will be safe! Therefore I am confident that voting for the Steve Bannon Party will lower the price of breakfast cereal!
> In the mid-’90s, my grandparents came to visit us in Oregon. We ate at a Chinese restaurant. When we went in, some angry customers were leaving, unhappy with the service or something. One of them shouted, “You’d better remember who won the war!” at them.
In the '90s?!? What the actual fuck?
The proper answer in that context would have been "The Viet Cong!"
Thank you for writing such a powerful piece on the flagrant and violent racism of the auto industry. I'm from Michigan, grew up in the '70s and '80s, and EVERYONE in my home town worked at the auto plants in Saginaw, MI., including my dad who was a member of the UAW for 40 years.
I work at a shop so I talk to a lot of gearheads about cars, and at most people will say, "Oh, I guess you guys didn't drive Hondas then, huh?" It's difficult to explain that, no, driving a Japanese car in my hometown at that time would have resulted in a destroyed vehicle if not a complimentary ass beating.
IT WAS VIOLENT. It felt like if I were to plant a "BIDEN/HARRIS 2024" in my current home of blood-red MAGA North Dakota, I could expect at least some vandalism and at worst my home might be set afire.
I appreciate bringing attention to it as so few people outside MI know about it (and even MI has forgotten some of it.
"The judge, Charles Kaufman, stated, “These weren’t the kind of men you send to jail … You don’t make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal.”"
same as it ever was.