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Frankly, anyone who thinks that taking a view of psychosis through a cultural lens will reveal something of value is just plain stupid. What a waste of time. Mental illness is disease, plain and simple. To understand and treat it, one need's to use microscopes and shit. Maybe some good math, too. Anyone who proposes that Cho's status as Asian-American caused him to murder 32 people should get exactly what they deserve: a vehement and mocking laugh in the face.
(Of course, how to get treatment for those who need it is a different story and perhaps the cultural stigmas are worth examining.)
Finally, Gang Lu was a Ph.D. candidate in physics. "Smart but quiet" applies nearly across the board for that group. Do you really think he was characterized this way because he was Asian?! The community-at-large might want to believe that his nationality made him "fundamentally foreign," but those of us who have attended grad school in physics know that we are *all* seen as different and apart. In fact, I think smart people everywhere should be in an uproar. Why are serial killers *always* characterized as clever?
