Americans Brace for Problems in Wake of Killings
In an alternate reality, this was the headline in the New York Times on the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings.
The actual headline was “Korean-Americans Brace for Problems in Wake of Killings” in today’s NYT. Personal accounts of hate delivered to and fear felt by Korean Americans in reaction to the murders in Virginia follow.
What happened in Virginia was an atrocity.
My heart weeps for the losses suffered by every single family involved.
Calling out Cho Seung-Hui’s ethnicity shifts focus and responsibility from the individual to a group. Once Cho’s ethnicity was discovered, news media highlighted his Korean roots in their headlines and stories.
From Forbes (via AP):
“Police identified the classroom shooter as 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui (pronounced Choh Suhng-whee) of South Korea. “
“Cho was in the U.S. as a resident alien with a residence established in Centreville, but living on campus in Harper Residence Hall, the university said.”
Cho immigrated to the US at the age of eight. He was acculturated in America. Yet he isn’t identified as an American in much of the coverage. Instead, he is the other, the stranger.
I don’t care that Korean Americans are planning to hide out until this blows over. Focusing on Cho’s ethnicity is a smokescreen that gives the rest of us an easy out from dealing with the root problems we have with violence in America.
The elephant in the room is how easy it was for Cho to acquire weapons. No other Western democracy suffers the murder rate that we do.
I’m an American. Bracing for problems, and hoping for solutions to our easy access to the tools of violence.
Update: via John, a perspective that speaks truth to the situation.
David Burgess, 
marco 1:27 am on April 19, 2007 Permalink
Hear, hear. Without trying to start very heated discussion here, I agree.
I do not understand why we in Finland (we seem to murder about 1/2 per capita as the USA) never have to brace ourself for the Russians. Check out our news and problems: Happy, happy, joy, joy .
Why is a democracy, as the USA claims to be, feeling so much anxiety, fear, and short-term explosive feelings compared to other nations.
Our news report are not that spectacular, I warn my neighbor if his garage door is open, our government supports us socially. But I am sure that you do the same (even when your neighbor is of Korean decent who lives next door for 20 year).
I have visited the ISA several times, I am married to an American, yet I do not feel unsafe when I am in the USA. Why then does my wife feel unsafe sometimes here?
Do not get me wrong, on a day to day basis, American people are great. Friendly, slightly around the bush (us dutchies are so to-the-point), and overall good people. So why the fear.
Why “brace” yourself for the “for-certain-hate-wave-crime-that-has-to-follow-this”. Why not ask you son or daughter how her/his day was in school? How it makes them feel? Why not mourn for those who are lost. Brace your-self. To me the concept sounds so weird and wrong.
What happened in Virginia Tech is terrible. It is an abscess in a society that should never be accepted. But I wonder how long it takes until most Americans will remember it again when the next shooting takes place?
Sorry for the rant Paul, I am just agreeing with you here…
I am a European (mostly Dutch). Hoping that the mind-set of people all over the planet do not use any tools for violence. Easy access or not…
Marco
marco 1:28 am on April 19, 2007 Permalink
Sorry that news link again is:
http://www.yle.fi/news/left/id58294.html
pascalc 5:09 am on April 19, 2007 Permalink
IMO, focusing on the origins of the murderer is just a way to not talk about the real problem because it has political and cultural impact: the possibility for anybody in the USA to buy and use guns.
I don’t see it changing as the Americans seem to consider their constitution as a sacred, almost biblical, document that should never change. The constitution is just a tool to agree on the organisation of society and common rules to live together, societies evolve and constitutions change to reflect the society you are living in.
Questionning the right to bear arms is questionning how adequate is the current constitution to the society the Americans are living in, hence pointing out that the USA have changed, something difficult to accept in a conservative society (from my European eyes, the Americans are very very conservative
).
David Burgess 6:21 pm on May 1, 2007 Permalink
I want to point out that this horrible event had as much to do with the poor state of mental health care in this country as it did with violent culture or easy access to firearms.