Letters to the Editor
-
For better or for worse, we've been assimilated...
While we continue to search for explanations for the inexplicable acts of Seung-Hui Cho, one thing should be kept in mind. This was the work of an individual who felt obviously felt no connection to any sort of community. From the evidence we have been presented with it seems clear that Cho was completely alienated from his classmates, friends, and family -- Asian, American, or whatever other imaginary construct we would like to assign to him. This being the case, I do not think it is particularly relevant that the accused is of Asian extraction.
I too felt fear that this incident would fuel the flames of the latent hatred and discrimination against Asians in America, however so far I believe the mainstream media has been relatively restrained in this case. Of course the right-wing blogosphere has given us its usual dose of venom, but this is no different than what you would usually find on such sites. What I do find equally abhorrent is the reaction amongst many in the Asian media (especially the Korean Language based media), which I think has been too quick to react to a backlash that has yet to manifest itself. I am not even sure that I know what the Asian community is, and it sure is news to me that we have ever been members of a united community of common values and ideas.
Your friend CeFaan Kim claims every person she knows within the Korean community feels partly responsible for the actions of Mr. Cho. Well my wife and I also members of the Korean community in New York and while we are certainly loathe to acknowledge that a fellow “Korean,” might be capable of such unspeakable violence, we certainly don’t feel any more responsible than any other member of American society. Even if the peculiarities of the “Korean-American” experience might have contributed to Mr. Cho’s psychosis, many other people including those who fit in the vanilla mold of “Typical Suburban White American Male” certainly have their own issues, and the vast majority has not committed acts of mass murder.
In other words, I feel as though we (whatever that means), in the Asian-American community are simply using Mr. Cho’s acts as an opportunity to air whatever misgivings about we might have about American society, and the minority experience. This has happened to such an extent that many have lost sight of the immediate tragedy.
This is not say that there are not valid issues that need to be addressed; but, perhaps what is most disturbing to so many of us, is that despite all of the indignities that we may have faced as the result of discrimination, we too are just like everyone else, we too are just regular Americans. Seung-hui Cho has done what so many of us have asked for so long. He has shattered the mythology of the model minority. We have been assimilated.
-
He was autistic
His aunt in Korea reported today that he'd been diagnosed with autism some short while after the family immigrated to the US.
If you Google autism + violence you'll see he totally fits the profile of someone who is seemingly high functioning, but autistic/Asperger's. (Asperger's is considered the high functioning end of the autistic scale).
People with this disorder aren't wired the same way. They don't communicate with others, don't have friends and are frequently possessed by rages that they may be unable to control. In addition, they may also have other mental illness syndromes like hallucinations or bi-polar like symptoms.
I can understand his parents wanting him to fit in, but maybe they should have notified the school or his condition.
So it's not about race - he was foreign because he wasn't like the rest of the normal humans.
-
Emily (again):
I think this is the concept I was taking issue with:
Most white males in, say, their 30's or above have actually seen white male privelege dismantled in their lifetimes.
Because I simply don't see that it *has* been dismantled. Are things better than they were twenty years ago, or even ten? Sure. But that doesn't mean that it's simply not a problem anymore, any more than it means that racism is dead because things are better than they were in the bad old days during the civil rights struggle.
As I said, I sympathize with people who feel marginalized by society, no matter what their race. And I would feel horrible for any white boy growing up who gets the impression that his personal problems simply aren't important because of his gender and color. But acting as if the concept of "white male privilege" is an outdated notion that should be confined to the history books is misguided, I think.
I respect that you worry about the message we send to young white boys, because it's an important thing to be concerned with. But the whole concept of privilege is about making people aware of what's going on around them in everyday life, not making them feel guilty for what happened in the past. From my point of view, and my personal experience, it's simply too soon to declare "white male privilege" DOA.
-
IonaTrailer: Check yourself!
Damn! As if the blame hadn't been dispersed widely enough, now we have a condemnation of people with autism disorder!
People with autism are not "foreign"! They are human beings, just like the rest of us, with feelings AND communication skills, even if they take a slightly different form than the average person. Contrary to popular opinion, people with autism CAN and DO relate to other people, depending on the varying degree of their disorder. I challenge you to read about people like Temple Grandin or Kim Peek who have been very open about what it is like to live with autism and are very high-functioning individuals in their own right (even more so than some of us with "normally-wired brains," as you so eloquently put it).
Furthermore, I would also challenge a diagnosis of autism based on one person's testimony. It is interesting that subsequent mental health evaluations of Cho as an adult did not reveal this diagnosis.