Letters to the Editor
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Have more faith in VA Tech students
There is absolutely no evidence of a racist backlash against Korean students. And instead of printing an article that is nothing but speculation, you might give VA Tech students credit for the way they have come together as a community. All I see is students hugging and crying and supporting each other.
VA Tech students are victims of a tragedy. They do not deserve to be called racist.
This piece could have focused on the racism on right wing blogs - a legitimate topic of discussion. Instead, you wrote a suggestive piece that implies the students -- the kids who have just lost their friends in a senseless shooting, the kids who will never again think of college without thinking of this -- are unfairly blaming Koreans and dividing the community.
And for those who think it's a story that some Koreans are anxious, that may be true, but it should have been handled differently. I felt like this story implied that there really is a racist backlash. The story could have pointed out all of the ways in which students have come together, and it could have emphasized that no racist incidents have been reported. This is one of those "objective" pieces about what "some people say" -- I find it very irresponsible considering what VA Tech is going through this week.
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response
First I would like to express my condolences for everyone at Virginia Tech.
Second, as an Asian American, I can understand why many Koreans feel this way; if I was in a situation like this, I would react the same way. Of course, I'm sure people at Virginia Tech are open minded people. But Asians/Asian Americans at the school are scared and unsure right now. You never know who will be the target of a hate crime just because of illogical anger (though I'm sure nothing will happen to them should they wish to stay).
But I am concerned of the anger that is being expressed on the Internet. For example, a website made a parody about the shooting using inappropriate words and other offensive content. Also, a Chinese student at Virginia Tech was getting death threats on his web blog because everyone on the internet thought he was the killer (even though it was known at that time that the killer already killed himself).
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Backlash possible
Of course it is understandable that they would fear a backlash. I can also understand why Chinese, Japanese or other Asians would fear a backlash, just for looking "Asian" (the killer in the news spent a lot of time labeled as just "Asian").
After 9/11 there were attacks against Muslims, and I remember at least one Sikh who was shot and killed at a gas station, just because he is Sikh and wears a turban. (Sikhism being an entirely different religion than Islam, and, if anything, often themselves actually have racist attitudes towards Muslims).
Having said this-I think that maybe the safest place might actually be on campus and not nearby at a random gas station.
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the article did not call the students racist
In no way did the article call the students racists. It just talked about how the Korean students feel. The article even said that the issue of race did not pop up among the non asian students.
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For god's sake!
Nothing's happened, there's been virtually no comment from anyone, yet it's assumed these kids will be persecuted because, well, it is Virginia, isn't it? Buncha yahoos. So it's either "Flee before the axe falls" or "Stand up to the bigots." Jesus! The perpetrator was described. It was a big news story. Was it somehow wrong to disclose the kid's country of origin? Being Korean is a nationality. True, virtually all Koreans are Asian, but most Americans are caucasian.
No A-rabs involved. Nothing to get excited about. Savage? Yeah, there's the Voice of the People. Is he still broadcasting? It won't be long now.
Come on, people! This was bad enough without trying to portray America as a bigot's playground! Oh I know, we have some. Less than before, more than in the future. But it's a LOT less now than in, say, 1950 or 1960. And VA Tech has plenty of Asian (and Indian and Arab and other non-white, American or not American) students. No one has singled out Koreans because of this.
There will always be someone who will say the Wrong Thing. I haven't personally heard it yet, and trust me, with my roots firmly in Virginia and southern Maryland, I'd have heard it by now.
This is a human tragedy. Maybe we could start looking at it that way. It couldn't hurt.
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It would be so much easier if the killer looked like Timmothy McVeigh
I think it is the whites who should be fleeing. There are 33 mostly white people who were executed by a person of color and all we read about is backlash, backlash, backlash. It is now a staple of the liberal media to rush out the "backlash" label if the perp is female or non-white and the victim is someone like me. Now imagine if Don Imus had done this.
Common decency does not mean blaming the victim.
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Irresponsible
It is very disappointing to see SALON stoop this low. Regardless of the predictable rantings of a few marginalized “racist screeds,” there is clearly not going to be any “backlash” against Koreans or Korean-Americans. That holds for the VT campus and for the country as a whole. This article is really an exercise in fear mongering and an unworthy attempt to politicize a terrible tragedy. Leave the VT community alone and save the polemics for another time.
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backlash against koreans not possible, eh?
besides the examples already posted (Vince Chin, Alia Ansari), let's not forget that after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were rounded up and put into camps, according the US Government, to "protect" them, presumably, from non-Japanese Americans.
--cyn
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We are all one family
We all belong to one race -- the human race.
These students are understandably sensitive but they need to try to overcome these feelings.
No rational person will make this tragedy an excuse to attack Asian students.
Asian students stand out in America, as high-achieving, hard-working, intellectually disciplined.
And that is all.
This young man was mentally ill and, in a country with no consistent health system, it is not surprising that we missed helping him.
The same happened with the Amish tragedy.
That is the national grief today. That in the wealthiest country on the planet, we fail to address desperate need.