VT shootings / Asian backlash

















When news broke out about the Virginia Tech shootings, one of my wife's co-workers informed people that the shooter was "oriental". Now in the aftermath of the horrific killings and the subsequent profiling of Cho Seung-Hui, there have been numerous articles and discussions about a possible backlash against asians - immigrants and asian-americans. Many have cited the treatment of Middle-Easterners and Muslims after 9/11 as a prime example.

Surely, the shooter was a disturbed individual. Will there be discussions on the anger that seethes underneath the quiet asian? Or will Cho be merely portrayed as an anomaly to the model minority stereotype? There were interviews of shocked townfolk who describe their community as tightknit and that there were never problems like this before. Is this an indirect comment against immigrants and foreigners? Will Asian-Americans try in vain to separate themselves from Asian immigrants? To his credit, Governor Kaine disparaged anybody who would try to make a political crusade out of this massacre... denied the race angle and stated that the Asian students at VT were contributing members of the community. The NY Times reported that many Korean-Americans at VT left the campus or was picked up by their parents. Asians are so rarely focused upon by the media, that I can only be pensive about how it will play out.

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