Letters to the Editor
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*Distasteful
Not "distateful," whatever that means.
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it's not a soapbox
it's a tragic affair and everyone is using this to push their agenda. The left points to the gun control and blame the pro-gun republicans. The conservatives point to the race and blame all non-white people. Some blame the university officials.
It's quite natural since people hate feeling so powerless. To even think 'Maybe there is really nothing we could have done to prevent this.' is just too much to accept. So they will keep on blaming and in the process, they push their agendas conveniently.
Let's see who sues the university first?
And for the record, the article should clearly state that 'the shooter is not an international student' even though some ignorant kid said so in the interview. Permanent residents of the United States are not considered or treated as international students by any US university.
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"It's All About Me"
Please. This is just more jump-on-the-bandwagon stuff where people try to make an event all about them. Like when people in Bumfocke, Iowa worried every time a plane went overhead after 9/11 because "there's a military installation only 150 miles away from here!"
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Reaching for news
I agree with what Godfrey posted above. This article feels like it is really trying to make something out of very little. A few students fearing reprisals and right-wing comments on the internet do not a backlash make. Referring to 9/11, and describing students leaving as 'fleeing' seems like unjournalistic exaggeration, if not outright invention, of what's actually happening.
Most annoying of all, this kind of article gives credence to conservative accusations of liberal bias. I can't help but think that the person who wrote it, and the editor who saw fit to publish it, were deliberatly trying to put a non-existent "minority suffering" tone on the tragedy, simply because. I'd like to think Salon is better than this kind of attitude.
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Would you like your pathos..
over or Understated?? It's tragic enough but here's more, just in case. I happened to glance at a newspaper stand today while waiting for a friend. A complete stranger saw my expression and proceeded to tell me that if those students had been allowed to carry weapons then none of that would have happened. I said nothing in return but of course my opinion is completely different in the fact that I don't believe we need guns at all. That means I'm a "lefty" I guess and the guy with the comment doesn't even know what pathos means..
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Borrowing trouble
Talk about a story stoking controversy where none exists.
Some Korean student felt white kids (apparently no Latinos or Blacks) were "staring" at him; other Koreans warned him not to go to the vigil because something bad "could" happen. And indeed, something could ... maybe it will ... it's possible ... you never can tell ... perhaps ...
Well, shit. There it is. The final proof that the United States is indeed the most -- and probably only -- racist country in the whole wide world.
Beyond the possibility that something might happen, the only real incident of racist yahoos in this story appears to be ... what? nasty e-mails? Well really, would anyone with half a grain of insight into human nature expect anything different? You don't think an American might get a nasty e-mail or a dirty look or two in Korea, if an American had shot 30 Koreans? I have no doubt that someone, somewhere at some time will do something to validate these fears, but come on: how about a little perspective?
But I don't really blame the Korean students for feeling a bit under the spotlight under the circumstances, because I've been there. I lived 10 years in a foreign country that is not exactly reknowned for its love of Americans, so I know it isn't always easy. But I've always lived in the real world, where the Age of Aquarius is unlikely to ever dawn, and in that world there are assholes everywhere. I wish they'd try to do the same and stop borrowing trouble.
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What Rubes
The comments so far from the finger-waggers claiming this piece is trying to create something out of nothing apparently didn't read the same article I did. The one I read says some Koreans fear a backlash and are leaving because of that fear. Then we see a rightwing wackjob post some idiocy about Paki's being responsible, and if not a Paki than at least a Muslim and if not a Muslim than we oughta at least be aware there's too many damn furreners running around and I understand why those kids are scared enough to leave.
Sorry wingers, America tends to get real redneck when things like this happen. I know you'd rather keep that on the DL but the kids scared enough to think they're better of leaving know exactly what kind of place America is.
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Evil and Amoral?
Peddling the killing of hundreds of thousands of strangers in a far away land, for personal or national gains, in a planned, systematic, arrogant fashion is evil and amoral.
What this kid did, is more attuned to mental and social illness.
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Leave it to Salon.....
...to preemptively wave the race card, and the "feel-for-me-I'm-a-victim" ridiculousness. You could have at least ran some stories about the actual victims before you trot out articles like this.
Look, I don't want any racial prejudice against Koreans, Asians, or any racial group. And personally, the fact that this was a Korean American - rather than a black person or a poor white - was good only because it shows that every person, every ethnic group, regardless of skin color, is human, and capable of both great and terrible things.
I'm sure there are some yahoos that might think to blame Korean Americans. But they are in the small minority. Salon, give the Virginia Tech community, and the American people in general, a little credit here.
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Nothing to see here folks, keep moving
"Just like 9/11!"
"Koreans are fleeing!"
** Huge image of crying Asian student **
Bullshit. This is the worst thing I have ever read in Salon. How embarassing.
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Give me a break.
Just because some Korean kids trump it up in their minds that there will be some giant backlash against them doesn't mean there is one. It sounds to me like they're just trying to inject a little more drama into their lives and the media is loving every minute of it.
The most common reaction I've heard when the race issue has come up is that he must've really assimilated, since these types of attacks are usually carried out by white kids. Way to immerse himself in the gun-nut american culture.
Just because one conservative nut trying to get her name in print says it doesn't mean anyone else thinks all Koreans are dangerous.