Virginia Tech Ramifications

For the past couple of days, I have been extremely uncomfortable with regard to the mass massacre at Virginia Tech. I completely empathize for those directly affected by this tragedy. But on a more personal level, I’m more uneasy about the aftermath that will ensue as a result of this incident because the perpetrator was Korean American. His Asian ethnicity will be sure to stir up my biggest fear, which is an Asian backlash among the drastically ignorant/mislead crowd – whether this backlash manifests itself in personal confrontations, in the blogsphere, or in other sources of media.

The biased media could be one potential fuel to this backlash. Those that may be more inclined to follow traditionally conservative/tabloid news outlets will find a barrage of in- your-face emphasis on the brutal killer nature of the shooter. One need not look further than the extremes of FOXNEWS and The New York Times as prime examples of media bias. Whereas traditional left-leaning New York Times seemingly portrays the killer as a victim ("You forced me into a corner"), FOXNEWS has a tendency to demonize the killer to an extreme ("LAST ANGRY WORDS").

Nevertheless, it has not a simple task to get over this ongoing uneasiness. This killer’s face has been plastered all over every major media outlet and in seemingly every site that I visit, his stone-cold glare stares back at me. In his eyes, I sense only rage, confusion, and insecurity. As a result, I can not help but to learn as much about this socio-path killer as possible and from as many news sources as possible. It is irrational to believe that one man’s actions can potentially affect an entire community that share a similar common ancestry. But Cho has managed to do just that. In the wake of the violent path that he has left behind and drilled school violence into America’s memory yet again, those that share his Asian ancestry are forced to confront their gender and ethnicity and a greater level than before.

Although I live in a seemingly sheltered environment among the left-leaning masses in the Northeast, I can’t help but to think about those people that may not share a similar liberal environment. Of course, I am generalizing a bit here – but for those in the majority that are not forced to confront diversity on a daily basis, it is easy for them to revert back to ignorant assumptions of a group that is as easily identifiable by skin pigmentation. Already, anonymous posts are going up on blogs everywhere – decrying Yellow Peril, evoking Asian de-masculinity, and spewing hate messages towards Asians using mainstream derogatory terms.

There is in fact, a tendency for those to incorporate the silent, anti-social personalities of Cho and apply those stereotypes to the entire group of Asian American males. Sometimes, there is an agenda attached to such an intent (read: political gains) and for others, shear ignorance. Regardless of the fact, this notion forces someone like me – an Asian American male – to seemingly have to defend my entire ethnic group and gender against those that harbor ill-sentiments towards my kind. This paranoid feeling raises Muslim-American sentiments after 9/11, of which I understand more fully after this incident. To be potentially on the receiving end of this backlash is indeed not something I wish upon any minority group.

What exactly do Cho’s actions and the ensuing backlash reveal about America’s contemporary society? This uneasiness I have alone is demonstrative of the fact that there is a tendency for human nature to be irrational and to jump to conclusions. At the same time, my fear is that this incident has invoked deep-seeded racial sentiments towards Asians as a whole (read: Yellow Peril). As it stands, China and the rest of Asia is growing in global influence, both politically and economically. Globalization has resulted in numerous factory jobs being outsourced to Asia. This phenomenon has created a culture of blame – where those that may be directly affected by the plight of jobs are forced to channel their misfortunes towards Asians – and not the corporations that move abroad - because they appear to be the ones taking away their jobs. In doing so, their irrational assumptions have contributed to this growing anti-Asian sentiment. The massacre at Virginia Tech only reinforces those sentiments because it allows them to channel their anger towards Cho’s ethnicity and all those racially associated with him. The media contributes to this phenomenon with an endless slideshow of Cho’s evil Asian face amongst the firearms that he used to end 33 lives.

I cannot help but to harbor such fear of a backlash resulting from this incident. As of now, the long terms effects of this incident are rather premature. But I am certain that in the coming weeks and months, there will be talk of immigration reform in order to limit the number of people coming from Asia. There will be experts upon experts who will claim that the school did not do enough to prevent this incident. More experts will be available to provide their two cents into every aspect of the incident in an attempt to decode the killer.

Finally, there will also be debate about the merits of the Second Amendment and of gun control. Conservatives will more likely push an agenda to legalize the right to bear concealed fire arms (this argument will merit a wholly separate entry) so that potential killers would think twice before committing another atrocity. On the other hand, liberals will blame the incident on the proliferation of firearms and the ease in which one can legally acquire these weapons. Either way, this debate will miss the most important point: These blame games cannot and will not bring back the deceased and will not comfort those that have lost loved ones. The focus should be a more macro issues with regard to perpetuated violence in our culture, as well as deep-seeded feelings if bigotry and hate. Until those elements are removed from our society, I fear beyond what I fear now, that somewhere sometime, another firecracker will explode in another environment, and the violence will continue completely race-blind.