With the arrival this month of the 30th anniversary of the murder -- and after writing about the case for years -- I felt the need to hear Ebens express his sorrow with my own ears, so that I could put the case behind me. So I called him up, and he talked to me.
As we remember Vincent Chin, it is important to see how this incident and case were part of broader historical, economic, political, and cultural shifts in American society.
In a country that often sees race in terms of White America and Black America, like Latinos, Asian Americans live in a racial middle where we must choose between being Asian (or Chinese or Filipino or Indian) or American, but not both.