Letters to the Editor
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South Korean?
I thought North Korea was the axis of evil.
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What the hell?
I'm a VT alum and lost a friend yesterday. I know dozens of alumni, current students, and faculty... So far the only people making a race issue is (apparently) right wingers whom I don't listen to, and Salon. Oh, and two Koreans at Tech that have not been discriminated against in any way.
Thanks Salon!
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People, please don't validate my presumption that many of you are ignorant of the facts...
Amy Ballard, a 19-year-old white sophomore at Virginia Tech, said that among her friends, the issue of the shooter's race and nationality hasn't really come up. "It's interesting that he was an ***international student***, but I feel it isn't really relevant at all to anything."
When one moves to the US at age 8 and remains here, that person is not an "international" person. He's an American, an immigrant....no different than every non-Native American.
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That's Racist
The Korean students should not leave campus. What Cho did had nothing to do with being Korean. It had everything to do with him being evil and amoral. Stay on campus. Don't add racism to an already profoundly tragic situation. it is racist to assume whites are unable to discern between an evil monster who happens to be Korean and all people of Korean descent.
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It is Just an Article
The article doesn't accuse anyone at VTech of racism. It just says that some Korean students are scared. Read the article, take a deep breath, and just realize that these fears are prevalent in our society, and Salon and the reporter are just writing about them.
I mean you can only read so many stories telling you what happened. I appreciate that Salon is attempting to provide a wider perspective of what happened.
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seems overblown
This fear of reprisals seems quite strange to me. I would be surprised if anyone at Tech thinks that there's a problem with all Koreans because of one crazy guy. And frankly how many Americans' can tell a Korean by their looks or their name anyway? I suppose if you believe this is going to be a problem that all East Asians would be at risk the way Sihks got caught up in the post 9/11 hysteria. But I don't think anyone is going to go after Asians or Koreans because of this.
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Stay there, guys!
If any of you happen to be reading this...don't let the hysteria or for Chrissakes the right-wing sensationalists cow you. Stay in your school, get your education, open yourselves to the student body. I know it sounds naive at this tender time but I'm sure they would love to hear from you.
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Ugh
when in doubt, invoke 9/11. It's the go-to, failsafe tragedy.
It's just like 9/11. No it isn't. It's just like a stupid, screwed up kid grabbing a gun. No political message, no deeper meaning, and certainly not on such a grand scale.
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Unbelievable
What the hell is wrong with this country? When this is done by white men, (which, by the way, it usually is: Colombine, Oklahoma City, the Amish School), no one targets white men...but heaven forbid a minority does it. This sort of overt racism -- clearly deeply embedded in the hearts and minds of this country's people--saddens me almost as much as this horrible massacre. For shame.
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Worst shooting?
Not in any way to minimize the magnitude of the horror everyone at Virginia Tech must feel, but Charles Pierce over on Altercation has already reminded us that it's a bit hyperbolic to call this the "worst shooting in American history" when we have places like Wounded Knee in our record.
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A backlash. Why?
I never understood these post-tragedy social reactions. Although I'm sure our collective intentions are for reparations and justice, the seemingly random nature of our vengeance exposes that just below the surface of our leathery skin is an ignorant society.
This pojnt is played for me every time I pay for something with my debit card. My bank, in its never ending attempt to curb fraud, has decided that placing my picture on my debit card will get rid of it entirely. Even though I'm of Brazilian-Portuguese descent, the two weeks of playing soccer in the summer sun of Bakersfield, California gave me a tan that would make a, umm, Middle Easterner writhe in melanin envy. Consequently, the refrain played out at every checkstand I whip my debit card out at is, "Wow, you look like a terrorist!" (The humor and wit of this exchange were worn out about two weeks after my card came in the mail.)
The genius, however, of these episodes is in my response, which exposes the sad truth of our hidden fears about those with dark skin (or sink darker than ours): "Um, how do you mean I look like Timothy McVeigh?" tinged with a tone of naivete and a quasi-ignorant Southern drawl.
Either they're afraid to admit that a white skinned, blue eyed American citizen committed the same act of terrorism that "real" terrorists commit all the time, or the media didn't do its job of rubbing McVeigh's image into our psyche, telling us to keep an eye out for "white men with blue eyes, who can found in every street corner in every city in America."
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What B.S.
This "backlash" is completely and utterly a fiction created by the press to ramp up anxiety and create "news." I have two kids in college who've spent the last 24 hours on Facebook, and there is no backlash anywhere except in the press and perhaps in the terrified minds of a few Koreans who remember what was purported to have happened to a few stateside Arabs after 9/11. Other than that, pure MSM-driven hysteria.
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Wait, let me get this straight...
There's been no actual racism on campus whatsoever. There's been no documented discrimination whatsoever. All of the non-Korean students interviewed have been very anti-racism.
Yet a couple of students are afraid there MIGHT be racism, despite there being no evidence to suggst this, and that's the breaking front-page giant-picture news that we get on this horrific massacre...that a couple of people are afraid there MIGHT be racism. Seriously?
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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.