Letters to the Editor
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International Student
I think the only reason that VT students and others whose reactions have been reported in the press refer to Cho as an "international" or "foreign" student is because that's how the major news networks depicted him. I doubt many people yesterday knew that he had been in the US since age 8 and was a longtime US resident and probably as American culturally as anyone born in the States. The group of people I ate lunch with yesterday were still under the impression that the early reports stating the shooter was a Chinese national issued a J1 visa in Shanghai in 2006 were possibly correct.
When you hear the news depicting someone as a "Korean legal permanent resident student," it's natural to assume they are an international student, i.e., a student on a F1 visa in the States specifically to study. It's not evidence of white students (or anyone else) lumping him into a category of "foreigness" as an "other." They simply did not have all the information.
It's more an example of poor broadcast journalism; just as Eaton's article is poor print journalism.