Letters to the Editor
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Where on earth did this come from?
"immediately suggested someone with a level of rigorous military training that only South Korean males can generally be expected to have."
There's absolutely no indication this kid has been out of the country since his family immigrated here when he was 8. So you leap to the conclusion that he went back to Korea and had this training because he's 23? Actually, based on today's news accounts, it looks as though his gap in education was spent at a mental health institution.
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Debbie Schlussel
Haha! I'm sure Debbie Schlussel will shut the hell up about the need to restrict foreign students who pay unfairly exorbitant international fees once she learns how good it can be for the American economy. What a fucking moron.
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Lapite Versus Leonard: Rumble on the Web
It's pretty disingenuous to a assume that because someone knows how to use a Glock, they must have served in a foreign military.
Citizen, non-citizen, American, Korean - the guy was psychotic. It has happened before, it will happen again, and racial and cultural background does not alter a disturbed mind. A Korean kid who is pressued too hard to excell in studies MAY become unbalanced, even commit suicide.
But it takes a special kind of crazy to brutally kill dozens of other people.
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Not Racism
Debbie Schlussel was wrong in her speculation. And was just speculation, and she said so.
But not all errors are racism, and anyway, Islam is not a race. Andrew Leonard jumped the gun and did not have the grace to say he was just speculating.
Debbie Schlussel asked a legitimate question: Why are the authorities hiding the ethnicity of the shooter? She wondered if it was because the shooter might be Muslim. Of course, maybe the cops, seeing an Asian corpse, did not know who he was.
And it could even turn out that Debbie's guess was right, what with the "Ismail Ax" tatto.
Most of us originally guessed "White Redneck". Does that make us anti-white?
Leonards column was "Yellow Journalism". Debbie's was merely wrong.
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unfair to all.
First off, I'd like to express my deep sympathy and sorrow for all those that lost anyone precious in the shootings on Monday. It was unfair, cruel, and unexpected.
However, yesterday, before the Asian Community made an outcry for the media constantly stating "South Korean, Permanant U.S. Resident...", some things made me and my collegues very angry. Did the media HAVE to keep on emphasizing that he was a native of South Korea? Are they actually criticizing all Korean-born U.S. residents as psychotic killers? The press could have just left it as "Korean-born Seung-Hui Cho," and was his status in the United States so important?
I am in the same position, relating to residence, as the former Cho. I've been raised in the United States since the age of seven, but that doesn't mean that I am gonna take the same actions in my life by being a mass murderer.
It just really frustrates me that the press seemed to be really convicting and criticizing all Koreans and even Korean-Americans in the United States. In addition, why were there no interviews of Asians on these reports? It's been said on a CNN article that there are over 500 Korean students on the Virginia Tech Campus. Why weren't they interviewed?
Finally, I'd like to say that if the constant mention of Cho being a South Korean U.S. Permanant Resident did not stop, a repeat of what happened to INNOCENT Muslims in the U.S. after September 11th may have occurred. Innocent Muslims, who may have had absolutely no relation to the Al Qaeda, were insulted, beat, and even killed. In some instances, Sikhs, resembling Muslims in dress, were also innocently attacked. Does the United States want a high rate of murder for those innocent Koreans? It is just so unfair how Koreans are being looked to as the killers, it's not as if we gathered together as a nation and decided to attack Va. Tech. It was an INDIVIDUAL with personal issues.
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Pleeeease !!!!
Look I'll agree maybe Debbie Schlussels' comments were a little edgy. Whatever happened to free speech for anyone who is NOT a Liberal? She has a right to her opinion and I believe she makes a good point. South Koreans can blame their own Cho for being "Americanized" but he was KOREAN and they have a lot of mental health issues over there with the highest rate of suicide in the world surpassing Japan in recent years. HMMM, makes me wonder what they are not dealing with as a society? Fix that problem and then maybe I will take anything they say about Cho more seriously. As for the Muslim remarks she made, come on, we live in a world where Jidadists are basically given free-reign to drag their religion through raw sewage without devout Muslims even confronting their actions. In the name of Allah, please, they have an agenda to kill anyone who is not a Muslim and even some of their own too. Darfur? When devout Muslims begin to confront the Islamofascists then I will take them at their word too. At this point, I'm afraid they are in it all together!
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The relevance of Cho's Korean nationality
Author Ander Leonard is correct that Cho's Korean background is irrelevant and any attempt to make connections between his Korean nationality and his actions is wrong.
The US media are correct, however, in describing Cho as a South Korean national with US permanent residency. He is not a US citizen. Having lived in the US since he was young, he was Americanized, but he was not American. Citizenship is available to long-term green card holders, yet for whatever reason, Cho retained his South Korean citizenship. Calling him "Korean-American" or "Korean-born" is inaccurate as those terms are used for ethnic Koreans with US citizenship. The former is used for native-born and naturalized Americans of Korean ancestry while the latter denotes naturalized citizens originally from Korea.
Those who accuse the US media of hyping his Koreanness are just plain wrong. Go to the websites of the NYT, WaPo, and other major news organizations to see for yourselves. The only headlines that have referred to his Korean nationality were the breaking news stories about his confirmed identity. Otherwise, headlines relating to this tragic event have not mentioned his nationality. His Korean citizenship is simply mentioned as part of the background information on his identity.