Letters to the Editor

This letter is associated with the following article:
With the Virginia Tech shooter's identity revealed, some Koreans, fearing a backlash, are fleeing the campus.
  • Bogus.

    This piece is conspicuously missing any real evidence of an impending "backlash" against Koreans. Meanwhile, there's plenty here -- including quotes from bereaved students on the VT campus -- to suggest that no racist response (beyond the inevitable ravings of a few lunatics and wack-job radio hosts like Michael Savage) is likely.

    "Some Korean students" "fear" that bad things are going to happen? "Racist screeds have cropped up quickly among right-wing commentators and on the Internet?" This sounds exactly like the kind of lazy sourcing Glenn Greenwald ridicules on his blog every day of the week. (And when I follow the hyperlink attached to the words "racist screeds," I get . . . "Debbie Schlussel?" I've never even heard of this woman -- and she now speaks for "the right?" I notice, also, that, while her response to the shootings was indeed racist, it was not anti-Korean, but anti-Arab.)

    Anecdotal evidence and common sense would seem to indicate that no wave of anti-Korean sentiment is building.

    The bottom line is that this article is irresponsible and distateful. The overwhelming impression it leaves is that Joe Eaton is licking his chops, praying for some violent and outrageous racism to materialize in the wake of this tragedy. Don't hold your breath, Joe.