April 19, 2007

Why Did He Have to Be a ...?

There’s a crucial moment early in many crime investigations when the first description of the assailant comes out. When the attack happens on campus, like it did Monday at Virginia Tech University, the initial question is obvious: student, faculty, staff or outsider?

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When the gunman is identified, there’s the possibility of more tense moments when, after all rumors and accounts are sorted out, the ethnicity is announced. In this case, the first official word came that the shooter was an Asian student, but it was unclear whether he was an international student studying in Virginia or, as it turned out, an Asian immigrant who grew up in Virginia.

Then, finally, confirmation: the killer was Korean. That news — along with a face plastered across television sets and tabloid-style Web pages — arrived early Tuesday and was repeated in nearly every account. Soon, the conversation had turned to heritage. Facebook groups started with titles such as “I’m Korean and Have a Gun, Don’t Be Scared,” “Why did the Virginia Tech shooter have to be an ASIAN” and “This is Not About Ethnicity.”

South Korean government officials expressed their dismay that a native son would commit such a crime. National Korean groups sent their condolences. Korean student groups created message boards to both express grief and prepare for the venom likely coming their way.

Brian Choi, the newly elected president of the Korean Student Association at the University of Michigan, said he was surprised to learn of the gunman’s identity. “We tend to be known as the model minority; you don’t expect Asians to act in that manner,” he said. “There is a sense of shame and disgrace — we don’t want to be associated with that.”

Some were displeased with the attention being given to Cho Seung-Hui’s background. The Asian American Journalists Association released a statement saying that it is “disturbed” by the prominent mention that Seung-Hui is an immigrant from South Korea when “such a revelation provides no insight or relevance to the story.... To highlight that suggests his immigration status played a role in the shootings; there’s been no such evidence,” the statement says.

But by Wednesday the gunman’s “resident alien” status had already emerged as a major storyline. The student in charge of the Korean Student Association at Virginia Tech, who did not return messages for comment, told Newsweek that he had received calls from multiple Korean students on the campus telling him they felt “horrified and scared.” A Korean college student told Inside Higher Ed that her non-Korean roommate’s parents warned her that, to avoid any danger, it would be best not to eat at a Korean restaurant.

Hugo Schwyzer, a history and gender studies professor at Pasadena City College who writes frequently about ethnicity, gender and student life , said he is concerned that as a result of the attention given to Seung-Hui’s background, Asian students will be teased and further typecast as socially awkward and introverted.

“I’m sure you’ll hear comments like, ‘Hey, Johnny, bring your gun today?,’ ” said Schwyzer, who wrote about the ethnicity issue in a blog entry titled “Wishing Cho Seung-Hui had been Billy Bob Johnson: the VA Tech shootings and anti-Asian stereotypes.”

“I expect many will respond by looking at Asian males and wondering what sort of rage-filled fantasies these guys may be harboring,” he added. “We’re not used to Asians being anything other than quiet, compliant and hardworking — the old stereotypes. Any time you have a minority group identified with an act of violence, the subset gets stuck with the blame.”

The reality, says Eun Sook Lee, director of the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium, is that had the shooter been white, no one would have made a big deal out of his background after the first reference.

“What I’m saying is that in Columbine, the whole white community didn’t have to apologize and take responsibility,” she said. “We need to extend our hand and extend our condolences because it is a tragedy. But it will also be a tragedy if this comes to symbolize Korean Americans.”

Added Audrey Yamagata-Noji, vice president of student services at Mt. San Antonio College and a board member of Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education: “Many of our students are quiet and do not communicate or express themselves well. This should not be seen as a thing to fear, rather, it should be viewed as something to more fully understand.”

Some said they are particularly concerned about the student reaction at Virginia Tech because only 1,655 of the 26,370 students at Virginia Tech are Asian, and only a fraction of them are Korean.

Elaine H. Kim, a professor of Asian American studies at the University of California at Berkeley, said that Korean students are more likely to speak out about the recent events if they are surrounded by a significant number of fellow Asian students. “I don’t think Korean Americans need to apologize about what happened. I don’t think they need to hide, either,” she said.

Choi, the Korean Student Association president at Michigan, said that his group has no plans to address the events publicly, in part because the academic year is closing. He said he has received an e-mail from a national Korean student group informing students at Michigan and others how to handle and report cases of discrimination.

“I think people tend to blow things out of proportion,” Choi said. “But I’m not worried about any outlash from student groups. It’s not a race thing to me.”

Michelle Choi, external chair for the Michigan group, said her dad left her a message after the shooting saying she should “be careful as a Korean American about my actions in the next little while.” She said there is heightened awareness among Asian student groups, but that Asian students at Virginia Tech should be careful not to detach.

“[Seung-Hui] was an American sociopath who committed a crime,” she said. “That’s nothing to do with what we’re about.”

— Elia Powers

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Comments

All-American Boy

I suppose it is true that some people will now profile Asian men as potentially dangerous, but we would do well to remember that except for his ethnicity, Cho was an all-American boy. Cho & his crime fit a specifically American profile if they fit into any pattern at all.

Joseph Duemer, Professor at Clarkson University, at 7:30 am EDT on April 19, 2007

Has there been any actual backlash? Note well that _no one_ in the article has any actual hostile actions or even unpleasant remarks to report directed at Asians in general or Koreans in particular. Until there’s a story, this is a non-story.

Dave S., Assoc Prof at Land Grant U, at 7:50 am EDT on April 19, 2007

Personal Safety

During tragic times such at this, we tend to focus on our own corner of the world. In our free society, we take responsibility for our personal safety. We do this in ways that are both logical and illogical. We keep our children home from school when a classmate scrawls a “hit list” on the bathroom wall. (A true story: http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs...70419/NEWS040102/704190322/1152/NEWS ) We suspect those around us who are quiet, socially awkward, own guns, or seem to be angry a lot — or are ethnically linked to the lastest tragedy. We must recognize that we are not really protecting ourselves, merely acting on our personal prejudices. In fact, we may even be less safe by focusing on factors that aren’t dangerous, and missing the truly dangerous warning signs.

My prayers go to the families of the victims as well as the family of the perpetrator — including his extended ethnic family.

Tom McCool, at 8:10 am EDT on April 19, 2007

Mental health does not pick and choose

I have to agree that it’s “not about ethnicity". I’m 100% pure Italian, but my family doesn’t act like the Sopranos, or the Godfather, or Goodfellas, or... I could go on for days with all the profiling. But there is profiling with every culture. Mental health issues — which is what this student obviously had — do not pick and choose who to infect. The point of all of this is that this student had problems. He could have been Italian, Asian, Russian... doesn’t matter. This man needed serious attention and whether he got it or not is another argument.

Regardless, my thoughts and prayers go out to each and every one of those people in VA Tech.

KC, at 10:05 am EDT on April 19, 2007

Just Sitting

Perhaps we need to just sit with this tragedy for a while and then try to sort it out.

James A. Post, Sr. Associate Dir Admissions at The University of Tennessee, at 10:05 am EDT on April 19, 2007

We avoid the science of how someone could be so deranged

For some reason we never look at the risk factors for someone, of any race, being so deranged. Why don’t we look at them? There are known factors. The age of Cho Seung-Hui’s father at the time of his conception is a robust risk factor for madness. The exposure Cho had to tetracloroethyelene PERC, a neurotoxin, used as the main solvent in 95% of dry cleaning, a family history of schizophrenia. Why does no one ask, discuss, investigate the known factors for his derangement and try to find out what happened to him? This is the only avenue that might really prevent more Chos.

Leslie Feldman, at 10:15 am EDT on April 19, 2007

Old shame, new group

Unfortunately, Korean-Americans are now facing the same shame African-Americans feel on a regular basis. Every time I hear about a serious crime I hope it won’t be a Black man who committed it, and every time I hear it is, I cringe. Sadly, I’m usually relieved when it isn’t. Other times I wonder if the African-American was realy responsible or it is another case of a Black scapegoat. That kind of recurring shame can’t be good for anyone.

MB, at 10:15 am EDT on April 19, 2007

Yes, but the news that South Korea has asked Koreans to *fast* “in repentance” for what some deranged kid of Korean extraction did... that signals to me that there are serious and deeply ingrained issues in some Asian cultures that are coming out in an excess of self-flagellating and making a story where there is none.

Donna, at 11:05 am EDT on April 19, 2007

Ethnicity and Terrorism

The most interesting aspect of this whole thing to me is that everyone in the media and government keep insisting that this is not terrorism. It may not me extremist Islamic terrorism, but this incident is terrorism. If the boy who perpetrated these events was of Arabic decent there would be no doubt in the American collective mind that this was a terrorist attack. Are other ethnicities immune from committing acts of terrorism? The country is responding as if it was a terrorist attack. The motivations for the attack appear to be similar to those of the extremist Islamic terrorism. Am I the only one with this perspective or does it just throw too big a monkey wrench into the Bush/Cheney/Rove propaganda machine to get recognized on a larger scale?

Harley, Art Professor at Rural Community College in MInnesota, at 11:05 am EDT on April 19, 2007

Terror and Race

The most interesting aspect of this whole thing to me is that everyone in the media and government keep insisting that this is not terrorism. It may not me extremist Islamic terrorism, but this incident is terrorism. If the boy who perpetrated these events was of Arabic decent there would be no doubt in the American collective mind that this was a terrorist attack. Are other ethnicities immune from committing acts of terrorism? The country is responding as if it was a terrorist attack. The motivations for the attack appear to be similar to those of the extremist Islamic terrorism. Am I the only one with this perspective or does it just throw too big a monkey wrench into the propaganda machine to get recognized on a larger scale?

Harley, Art Professor at Rural Community College in the MIdwest, at 11:10 am EDT on April 19, 2007

Korean Students at VT need to show support...

Korean students at VT need to reactivate and show support to the rest of the community. I have not seen one Korean on TV from the campus. And VT has a HUGE Korean-American population!! They need to show that they can be vigilant and show that they are a part of VT and a part of America!! This is NOT a racial issue, don’t make it one!!

-A Korean-American

MK, at 11:15 am EDT on April 19, 2007

What goes around...

Obviously this guy’s ethnicity/nationality has absolutely nothing to do with what happened, and Korean-Americans are in no way associated with this guy’s actions any more than whites, blacks, or anyone else. That said, folks like the Pasadena City College professor, who make a living out of fixating on pigmentation and genitalia, are harvesting what they’ve sown. They tell us that we need more black professors, for example, to provide “role models” that blacks can “identify with.” We’re told that when the Rutgers women are insulted, all black females are insulted. So I guess the same logic would say that when a Korean American goes on a homicidal rampage, all Korean Americans are shamed. I don’t buy it, but that’s the same kind of logic that we’re constantly fed by the P and G crowd...

Prof. Challenger, at 12:05 pm EDT on April 19, 2007

student fears

I asked my students (16 in a seminar) yesterday whether they wanted to talk about what happened, and their concern is that there will be violence against Koreans or, as they put it, people who just look Korean. Some moms are telling their kids not to go out at night.

Sarah Schneewind, Assistant Prof. at UCSD, at 12:05 pm EDT on April 19, 2007

Cho was a killer type, he was crazy.

I am in Korea right now and this event has been interesting in how Koreans have reacted to it. In the morning, when only the shooting itself was known several people made comments about American violence. Later of course they backed away and acted confused.

Cho is interesting in that he helps prove a view I’ve argued for a long time about brutal killers. This view is a rather old fashioned one that the only real ‘type’ for brutal or mass killers is that they are just plain crazy or disturbed.

Cho was not a regular american. According to the papers here he never took US citizenship or renounced his korean citizenship, he did not take an american name and it seems his video commentary imitated Korean movies.

Some people seem to like to draw conclusions based on single data point — Timothy McVey is a good example. The one common flavor is craziness.

William, at 12:10 pm EDT on April 19, 2007

Seriously....

I think the whole issue about the killer’s ethnicity springs from two sources: 1) The American media’s overemphasis on his immigrant status and ethnictiy (if the killer was white..they will prolly announce the name and thats it....) 2) the collectivistic nature of asian cultures. Number 1 is just another reason I am so disgusted with American media (and why the hell did they have to air the videos...prolly cuz NBC had one of the lowest ratings this past week??!?). Watching the news just convinced me to never rely on one source for news...its biased and its flawed...because it is reported by humans (who have their own prejudices and preconceived notions). The fact is, the West knows and understand a lot less about Eastern cultures (which is vastly different). If they did, ridiculous stereotypes about Asians wouldn’t exist. In this incident, the killer was a deranged madman who happen to be Asian. Period. End of story. To blame it on Asian culture...is as good as blaming western culture for the columbine shootings. In any case, the killer was born in Korea but SOCIALIZED in American society(which obviously did not work well). If native born white kids had socialization issues and grew up to became mass murderers (aka McVeigh, Columbine shooters). Imagine the difficulties for a non-english speaking immigrant. We should be examining what is it in American culture rather than trying to shift the blame away.

Xing, Texas-Austin, at 1:50 pm EDT on April 19, 2007

Oh please, get real.

The comments by Lee below are ridiculous at best and a little racist at worst."The reality, says Eun Sook Lee, director of the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium, is that had the shooter been white, no one would have made a big deal out of his background after the first reference.

C’mon, if this had happened in South Korea by a European American, yes it would have been mentioned all over the place just like here, so get a clue Lee. If the killer had been an immigrant from Germany, France, Russia etc, it would be mentioned the same as well. Sorry that your perfect world image of Koreans burst. Whenever there is a possible hate crime done by a European American, the media can’t wait to push it down your throat with images of the K.K.K. and “white supremecy, etc..ie The terrible Jasper dragging in Texas, but when it is a race hate filled crime done to whites, the media is silent about it..ie The San Fransico Zebra Killings or the more recent murders in Wichita. (I’m sure that you are thinking now to yourself, “What is that? I never heard a word about those crimes.)

Paul, at 2:21 pm EDT on April 19, 2007

Actually, I think it speaks well of the United States that there has NOT been any appreciable backlash against Koreans or Korean-Americans, despite the sensationalistic 24/7 news coverage. It almost appears as if certain professional victims are disappointed at the lack of such a backlash, just as certain professors at Duke seemed to be disappointed at the fact that their own students weren’t rapists.

Arab-American Frequent Flyer, at 5:56 pm EDT on April 19, 2007

Prof. Challenger: What is the “P and G crowd"? CW

Connie, at 5:56 pm EDT on April 19, 2007

“If the boy who perpetrated these events was of Arabic decent there would be no doubt in the American collective mind that this was a terrorist attack.”

I think this is too strong a statement. Witness the 2006 case where an Iranian student drove his jeep into a crowd at the University of North Carolina. He told investigators that he wanted to “avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world,” and he was charged with nine counts of attempted murder. Still, the case was never treated as anything more than the act of one isolated individual; there was never any serious suggestion in the media or popular culture that this was a terrorist attack.

Tom T., at 8:11 pm EDT on April 19, 2007

There is no doubt that the tragedy that happened at VTU is a horrific incident. However, many points need to pondered over. As an asian mother, one of the things that came to my mind was what the killer must have gone through to have reached this bursting point. Migrating to a new country at the age of eight and not being able to adjust to the new culture must have been a tremendous burden on him. Furthermore, the stress of growing up in an Asian household where kids are expectated to be high academic performers must have added to the burden. Some asian kids growing up in the west have problems adjusting socially and struggle between two cultures. Added to this is the ridicule and teasing that one has endure as a rite of passage in middle and high school. Also, mental illness is not understood or discussed in the asian community as it is considered a stigma. We all have plenty to learn from this tragedy. May the souls of all those that departed in the massacre rest in peace. My heart goes out to the VTU community. I hope that they find peace.

ggggvvvv, at 6:00 am EDT on April 20, 2007

What backlash? I don’t see any.

I haven’t heard anyone comment negatively on Cho’s nationality or speak out against Koreans. In fact the idea that white Americans are now terrified that thousands of korean immigrants will suddenly burst out and start a rampage of mass murder unless the whites get them first is ridiculous.

I can’t understand why the press plays up his nationality so much. At first one may conclude it is due to the uniqueness of the situation but I can think of at least two asian american mass murders in the recent past (although I can’t think of one by an asian foreign national as in this case.)

Xing, you statements border on racist. You seem to imply that Cho became a mass murderer due only to his exposure to whites. This ignores the tradition of mass murdering that exists in virtually all cultures (witness the Malay-culture’s ‘running amok’ and the Japanese subway gas attacks, even Singapore had Adrian Lim.) I tend to agree with William below in that there are not bad cultures as much as bad people.

Harley, of course people don’t see this as terrorism. Terrorism is linked to causes and groups while this is obviously the actions of an individual.

Finally, even if some Americans started blaming Koreans (which,as I said, I don’t foresee), they would not be unique. The news in Korea the past month has featured demonstations against Americans because of a military vehicle accident that killed two (I think) children. Americans were advised to avoid certain areas. As I recall similiar protests and warnings happened after a rape in Japan. Blaming a nation for the actions of individuals is stupid but it most certainly is NOT confined to America.

OliverP, UND, at 6:00 am EDT on April 20, 2007

I think this article is a bit of anover reaction. It was also widely publicized that Mr. Cho was an English major. Do English majors need to be worried about persecution. I was actually quite moved by the genuine and sincere reaction of the South Korean nation. The classic profile for this type of killer is a white male, but, as someone said ealier, mental illness does not choose race. Perhaps Mr. Cho is embarassing because he violates the positive sterotypes white Americans have about Asians. All races, ethnicities, and genders have people who are sociopaths. Unfortunately, Mr. Cho was extraordinarily successful at his murderous mission. Otherwise he would have been a blip in the radar on a week when we would have been hearing once again about the Columbine massacre, which of course fit the profile in being perpetrated by wite males.

Mary, at 8:30 pm EDT on April 24, 2007

Words

Racist or not? That is the question. Actually the question is: are we, as a culture, awake enough to notice the small bias that appears in our daily language. I often hear students and community members use race as a descriptor when it is not necessary. Example: I was walking down the street and a Mexican man dropped some money. I picked it up and returned it to him. How is the race of the man who dropped money relevant? I have yet to hear a person identify the subject of a story as white. The issue at hand is the underlying assumption of a white, heterosexual, middle class man being the universal subject. This article might have been an “over-reaction", but a racist article, I think not. We, as Americans, should practice our sacred right of free speech by questioning the intent, or hidden agenda, behind all information. An uninvolved democracy is a tiny step away from becoming a fascist regime.

Marisa, English & Theater Teacher at Neah-Kah-Nie High School, at 2:50 pm EDT on May 7, 2007

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