Minnesota Campaign Staffer’s Use of Racial Slur Revives APA Community’s Anger
Twenty-four years after Vincent Chin was murdered, Mike Osskopp is caught yelling out ‘another Jap car.’ Is history going to repeat itself?
In front of a camera, Mike Osskopp, the district director for Minnesota Rep. John Kline, pointed to a line of cars, looked directly at the camera and said, “Your buddy is supporting all of these ‘Jap’ and German cars.” That was right after Osskopp was recorded screaming “another ‘Jap’ car” twice.
Footage of the Sept. 17 incident, which happened outside an event for Kline’s opponent Coleen Rowley, found its way onto Web sites and local news reports prompting Osskopp to apologize for his outburst two days later.
“I apologize if my words offended any Americans of Japanese descent, including my sister-in-law. I allowed my emotions to get the better of me and used a phrase commonly used in my youth, but which is now inappropriate and offensive,” said Osskopp to the Star Tribune.
Osskopp’s boss, Congressman Kline, also called the J-word an anachronism for modern day sensibilities. He condemned Osskopp’s remarks as “unacceptable now” and moved on with his reelection campaign with Osskopp still on his staff roster.
Kline’s communication director Troy Young did not respond to the Pacific Citizen’s request for comment.
But Asian Pacific Americans leaders are challenging Osskopp — the J-word is a racial slur not just an outdated word. In this case, it reopens old wounds caused so long ago by the death of Vincent Chin, a young Chinese American who was murdered in 1982 by two laid-off Ford workers in Detroit because they thought he was Japanese.
“History is repeating itself,” said Helen Zia, who led the fight for justice in the Vincent Chin case. “The pump has been primed. It’s indicative of how Asian Americans are being treated in the current climate.
“That was terrorism directed at Asian Americans,” added Zia about Osskopp’s slurs.
Community leaders say Osskopp’s racist outburst is derived from the same anti-Japanese sentiment that pervaded the 1980s when the flagging domestic automobile industry inflated xenophobia, raised contempt for foreign-made cars and increased racist attitude towards Asian Pacific Americans.
“They just don’t get it,” said Ilean Her, executive director of the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans. “They say it’s the Japanese over there, but history has taught us that all Asians are grouped as one.”
Suddenly, the demise of one company has been put on the shoulders of the APA community. “It’s easy to blame Japanese automakers when you’re upset. It’s easy to say ‘Oh it’s the Japanese companies,’ but we’re here and you’re targeting us too,” said Her, who has been fielding complaints from outraged community members.
One does not have to look far to see where Osskopp’s racist attitude was derived. On the bank of the Mississippi River in St. Paul the oldest Ford plant, which still manufactures pickup trucks, is slated to close in 2008. Again, thousand of workers are expected to lose their jobs — including APAs, who make up a large portion of the minority population in Minnesota.
“We are here. We feel the impact of the Ford plant closure too,” said Her. “I kind of don’t think they understand. It’s all a part of the consciousness here.”
In a Sept. 20 Star Tribune article, Minnesota’s largest daily newspaper reported Osskopp of “using a racial term.”
“Jap” is a racial slur banned by Congress. Zia said even the local media soft peddled the issue.
According to Her, local APAs still feel invisible in the mainstream and political arenas until negative incidences make them visible for all the wrong reasons. The community is still feeling the negative effects of the Chai Soua Vang case. The Hmong American was convicted of murdering several White deer hunters in St. Paul. During the trial, Vang said race was a factor in the November 2004 killings and accused the hunters of yelling racial slurs and shooting at him first. After the trial, bumper stickers that read, “Save a Deer, Shoot a Hmong,” were seen around town.
A former Minnesota state representative, Osskopp was known to give dog biscuits to fellow legislators who voted with him and even worked in radio before joining Kline’s team. His continued presence on Kline’s staff is an affront to the APA community, many say.
“It tells me racism towards Asian American doesn’t count,” said Zia. “There’s no accountability.”
JACL Executive Director John Tateishi said it’s important to continue to challenge Osskopp.
“I hardly think Osskopp’s use of the racial slur was just a slip of the tongue and, as he later stated in his apology, a word he used as a kid but never, ever uses anymore. Words like that don’t just slip out. They’re part of a person’s thinking. Racially derogatory words have the intent of dehumanizing people and making them targets for derision in the speaker’s mind. These kinds of words don’t lay about in a person’s mind waiting for the right occasion. They’re part of the person’s thinking, the way they view us,” he said.
“Given that this is the auto industry we’re talking about, if you let this kind of thing go unchallenged, you can’t help thinking about Vincent Chin laying on the streets of Detroit with his head bashed in. We’re not going to let that happen again, ever,” added Tateishi.
Bill Yoshino, JACL Midwest regional director, sent a letter to Kline condemning his staff member’s use of a racial slur.
“His use of this slur is particularly abhorrant because it was a calculated attempt to gain a political advantage without regard for the harm it would cause,” said Yoshino.
APA community leaders say the best way to show that racism will not be tolerated is at the polls in November.
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