By Grace Lee Boggs
Michigan Citizen, June 30-July 6, 2002

 In the last few weeks Asian Americans across the U.S. have been coming together to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the brutal killing of Vincent Chin in Highland Park, Michigan, by Ron Ebens, a Chrysler supervisor, and his stepson, Mike Nitz.

Ebens and Nitz did not serve one full day in jail.  After pleading guilty to second degree manslaughter they were sentenced to three years probation and fined $3,780. "You fit the punishment to the criminal, not the crime," said Judge Charles Kaufman. In other words, the lives of two  Euro-American auto workers meant everything while that of an Asian American was worth less than $4000.

This glaring injustice has given birth to a generation of Asian American activists.

In Detroit our Vincent Chin: Rededication to Justice weekend was co-sponsored by a wide array of local organizations.  The June 18  New York Times covered it with a front page article, continuing inside with a picture of the young Asian Americans who made up half the planning committee. Nearly two hundred people viewed the award-winning "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" film on June 21, and a similar number attended the teach-in the next day. We heard an eloquent speech by Howard University law professor Frank Wu and moving stories by veterans of the 1982 struggle and survivors of recent hate victims. These included the family of Filipino American postal worker Joseph Ileto who was killed on August 1999 by a white supremacist in L.A.;  Catherine Matthews, the girl friend of Won-Joon Yoon who was murdered on July 4, 1999 during Benjamn Smith's rampage through Illinois and Indiana;  and Alberta Lee, daughter of Dr. Wen Ho Lee, the scientist charged with spying for China and held in detention for nine months until finally released with an apology from the judge in the case.

Performance poets shook the International Institute on Saturday night with their artistry and energy. On Sunday we made a solemn pilgrimage to Vincent Chin's grave.

During Saturday's teach-in I was on a panel of community "leaders" who were challenged by the moderator, Professor Scott Kurashige, to come up with positive proposals to help prevent hate crimes.  This challenge became particularly daunting after Arab Americans on the panel reported that since 9/11, in addition to the dozens of Arab-and-South Asian Americans who have been physically assaulted and the thousands detained without due process, tens of thousands are now so fearful of being "disappeared" that they no longer go to any government agencies for needed services.

In the light of this widespread suffering and the escalating militarism and McCarthyism of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and Sharon,  I said that the time has come when those of us who represent the various identity groups who have struggled to humanize this country over the last forty years need to come together to build a new "We the People" movement, made up of those who reject the materialistic and exploitatiive values and policies of this country that have made us a Satan in the eyes of the world, and committing ourselves to building a new America based on new life-affirming values.of respect for each other, for the peoples of the world, and for the Earth.

Coming together to build this new "We the People" movement is the best way, I believe, to isolate Al  Qaeda.  It is therefore the best way to provide for our own safety.  We can't depend upon the FBI, the CIA or any government agencies to do it for us.

Grace Lee Boggs, who just turned 87 on June 27, 2002, is a longtime, respected community activist and leader in Detroit. She and her late husband, James, shared a vision for peace and justice that led to the formation of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership. You can find other inspiring articles, programs and evidence of visionary re-imaging of community on their web site.