From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: Asian-American activism begins

 

From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement by Paula Yoo is an award-winning non-fiction, young adult book that looks deeply at the people and circumstances that launched activism for Asian-Americans.  Yoo uses primary sources and interviews from the 1980s to the present-day hate crimes against Asian-Americans due to the Coronavirus pandemic to put the whole plight of Asian-Americans in context.  This is a valuable book for U.S. History classes, social justice and law classes, as well as for teens and adults who want to learn more about other civil rights movements aside from the ones for Black people and perhaps the LGBTQIA+ communities. 

Detroit in 1982 was full of tension.  Tension between Asian-Americans and those in the automobile industry.  When a Chinese-American man, Vincent Chin, was brutally killed by two white men and the sentence was only probation and a $3000 fine, the Asian-American community organized to protest against this injustice.  Chin's wrongful death was the first case brought against someone's civil rights being violated.  The prosecutors retried the defendants claiming that their crime was racially motivated and that violated Chin's civil rights that were protected under the law.  What ensued was a years-long battle in and out of the courts with multiple law enforcement, attorneys, witnesses, and national figures for justice being pulled back in to find closure on the case.  

What stood out to me was how ordinary, everyday people got involved in the movement. For example, Mable Lim, an elderly woman who drove around Detroit with press releases shared that when she was younger she never stood up to the racism she encountered. "I accepted it, you're used to being excluded and treated differently."  Many readers may relate to Lim and her perspective, even to this day.  Marginalized groups benefit from learning about the past where coming together for a common cause brings strength to the community as a whole.

Another part of this story that was especially informative was how all-encompassing the movement became.  At first it was Chinese-American activists that then grew to Japanese-Americans, then the NAACP and Pacific Islander groups joined.  During a march an elderly Filipino man was asked why he joined and his reply encapsulated the feeling for justice, "If we don't stand together, we'll always be divided."  This book teaches the origins of the term Asian American and Pacific Islander.  Readers can better understand how these modern-day terms came about and how they are used today.

Finally, the true-crime aspect of the story is also a reason why I recommend it to young adults and adult readers.  Yoo writes in a narrative style similar to true crime podcast scripts that provide details to the reader about the background of each person involved in the case.  The courtroom scenes and judicial procedures are also notable because they were the cause of laws actually changing to ensure equitable sentencing procedures for future cases.  Readers are also not lectured at in this book. For example, Yoo doesn't state her opinions about the motivation behind the killing.  She lays out the evidence from both sides and that is what is also good to read.  How she handles the effects on the defendants' lives brought a more balanced approach to this story.

After reading this book readers will undoubtedly want to do their own research on the case and the people involved.  Yoo provides numerous sources for further reading, including the film, Who Killed Vincent Chin? Here is an interview from the Glendale Library that was done with Yoo: