Mr. Chin met his assailants, Ronald Ebens, a supervisor at Chrysler, and his stepson Michael Nitz, who had recently been laid off, at a strip club in Highland Park, a small blue-collar city surrounded by Detroit, where Mr. Chin was having his bachelor party.
A dispute started inside the club about a stripper. Then a dancer heard Mr. Ebens hurl profanities at Mr. Chin, blaming him for the loss of American jobs. Moments later, according to court documents, Mr. Ebens and Mr. Nitz chased Mr. Chin down the street and crushed his skull with a Louisville Slugger.
Asian-Americans called the killing a hate crime. But a judge ruled the death was no more than the tragic end to a barroom brawl. The two pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, and as part of the plea agreement, were sentenced to three years of probation and $3,780 in fines and court fees.
"It sent a chilling message that it didn't matter if you worked for American companies and spoke English without an accent, you still weren't regarded as a red-blooded American worthy of rights," said Frank Wu, a law professor at Howard University and author of "Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White."
"The tragedy marked our political coming of age," said Helen Zia, a writer who helped found American Citizens for Justice in response to the Chin killing. "But we also need to consider where we go from here."
