As the Trayvon Martin killing stirs outrage among African Americans, Asian Pacific Americans see the case as a reminder of racial discriminative issues still prevailing in society.
On Feb. 26 in Florida, 17-year-old Martin was shot to death by half white, half Hispanic neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.
Martin was on his way back to his father’s fiancee’s home when Zimmerman saw him and thought he was suspicious. Conflict broke out and Zimmerman fired his gun. Zimmerman told police Martin attacked him first and he acted in self-defense, but the death of the unarmed teenager aroused anger among thousands, including some in the APA community.
“The Trayvon Martin case is a chilling reminder of the ongoing specter of racial prejudice and discrimination, and that justice is often elusive for those who are considered ‘suspicious’ or ‘other,’” said Leonie Campbell-Williams, director of communications of the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC).
Campbell-Williams brought up Chinese American Vincent Chin’s case when speaking of the Martin killing. Chin was beaten to death with a baseball bat by two white autoworkers who thought he was Japanese. The tragedy occurred in 1982, when most people were against the milieu of fierce competition with Japan.
Despite the evidence police gathered, Campbell-Williams said the perpetrators never spent a day in jail.
“While there was no justice for Vincent Chin, 30 years later, we demand justice for Trayvon Martin,” she said.
According to a March press release by the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Congresswoman Judy Chu believed a thorough investigation is needed before people reach conclusions about what exactly happened in the Martin killing.
Nonetheless, Chu also considered Martin “an unarmed victim killed in a senseless act of violence.”
“We have seen similar cases of violence in communities around the nation and must confront these examples whenever and where ever they occur,” Chu wrote in the press release. “Americans of all backgrounds deserve equal protection under the law, and I join my Congressional colleagues in emphasizing how important this investigation is.”
Freshman computer science major Debbie Chang said that compared to Chin’s murder case, Martin’s case seemed less relevant to racism, for there is little evidence connecting the case to such matters.
Unlike Martin, Chin was clearly murdered because of racism, Chang said.
Because both cases involved young members of different ethnic groups, many APAs feel the two cases are somewhat similar.
The men who attacked Chin were charged with manslaughter at first, but a plea bargain brought the charges down. Instead of going to prison, they were given three years probation and ordered to pay a $3,000 fine and $780 court cost, sending the APA community into outrage.
Similarly, the public was infuriated when they were first told that Zimmerman had not been charged with the death of Martin. He was finally arrested and charged with second degree murder on April 11, but has been released on a $150,000 bail.
Professor Shueh-Fang Lin of the Chinese department expressed her concern and said Martin’s death serves as a warning for people of other ethnic backgrounds in the country.
“The fact that a white man can get away with killing a black child worries me, especially when the incident occurred in a state as liberal as Florida,” Lin said. Based on her observation, although every citizen possesses the same rights in front of the Constitution, the country failed to completely eradicate discrimination and racial violence.
“The murder of Trayvon Martin tells it all,” Lin continued. “We now live in a society where ‘colorblind’ racism exists. People claim that they aren’t racist, but when they see a colored man, they would associate him with certain characteristics.”
A 2000 New York Times article stated that there were 335 in 1993 and 486 violent attacks against APAs in 1999, demonstrating a 32 percent increase. However, more recent statistics from the FBI’s annual hate crime report show that only 4.7 percent of the single-bias hate crime incidents involved APAs.
Today, because of Martin’s death, APA organizations, like the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, are gathering their efforts to eliminate racial prejudice and discrimination.
Composed of the AAJC, Asian American Institute, Asian Law Caucus and Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the organization is committed to building bridges and partnerships with all communities to end racial bigotry, stereotyping and discrimination in American society, Campbell-Williams said.
She added that Chu and other leaders have called upon federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to devote all their resources to investigate and prosecute the killing of Martin so that history does not repeat itself.
