Who Was the VA Tech Murderer?

Malena Amusa

Who Was the VA Tech Murderer?

(Students held a vigil at Virginia Tech campus Monday night, April 16, 2007, in Blacksburg, Va. after gunman massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history Monday/AP Photo/The Roanoke Times)

The news of the Virgina Tech shooting yesterday spread faster than it took Cho Seung-Hui to kill his 33 victims, including himself.

In addition to the death toll, the question of the shooter’s color kept coming up.

In the back of my mind, I prayed the killer was not Black.

And this morning, a co-worker of mine relayed a similar fear. “Please tell me he’s not Asian,” she said.

“He’s actually an Asian man,” I responded.

“What kind of Asian?” my colleague, who is South Asian, asked.

“I think East Asian,” I said.

The conversation ended there.

The mass murderer was South Korean—not that his race is any justification or indication of his crime. And thankfully, major media outlets have withheld any racial analysis of this tragedy, except frequent mention of Cho’s “resident alien” status.

But a timeline of shooting rampages featured in a New York newspaper today showed that an explicit racial dynamic exists when it comes to these type of crimes.

The timeline starts August 1, 1966 when a shooter fired from an observation deck, killing 16 and wounding many others, and moves to the latest before Virginia Tech, to 2006 when a man killed himself and his two sons during a visit to Shepard University in West Virginia.

Of the nine incidents on the timeline, the race of the shooter is never indicated except in the Nov. 1, 1991, incident, when a “Graduate student from China” shot and killed five University of Iowa employees and himself.

Why is it that when mass-shootings like this one occur, many of us cross our pinkies and toes and hope that the perpetrator doesn’t belong to our ethnic group?

What has history taught us about crimes that fall along the color line?

Andrew Lam may have some answers. In his piece Let it be some other ‘Asian’ he explains:

To be a minority in America, even in the 21st century, is to be always on trial. An evil act by one indicts the entire community. Whoever doubts this need only look at the spike in hate crimes against Muslims and South Asian communities after 9/11.

Posted at 7:27 AM, Apr 17, 2007 in News | Permalink | View Comments

Comments

"Why is it that when mass-shootings like this one occur, many of us cross our pinkies and toes and hope that the perpetrator doesn't belong to our ethnic group?"

Because the society taxes all of us for the actions of a few. AND, then uses the Minority Monster as window dressing to cover the horror the society inflicts 24/7 in places like Baghdad, San Quentin, South Central, SuperMaxx prisons, etc, etc.

We all know that if this shooter was Black, the white media and angry black women would've found a way to blame Hip-Hop and Gangsta Rap.

Your co-worker has no need to worry though. This shooting will not discredit all Asian Americans. This is now just a case of one man's dementia. The media is already painting the picture of this shooter as loner w/some mental issues. Whereas if the student was Black, our entire race (and hip-hop) would be under fire once again.

If this shooting occured two weeks ago, Don Imus would still have his job. He wouldn't even got a two-week suspension. The media would've been too busy covering this story.

korey....you say that the shooting will not discredit ALL Asian Americans.... I find this comment vague and unsettling. What do you mean the shooting is not going to discredit all Asian Americans? This shooting was meant to "discredit" Asian Americans and the fact that it didn't is something we should be grateful for?

Also, you seem to belittle the anxiety of KOREAN AMERICANS in general by saying if the shooter was a black man your entire race and hip hop would be under fire..... the fact of the matter is, 1)if hip hop didn't portray "gun violence" and "gangsterism" then hip hop would probably not come under fire 2)the media always mentions his immigrant status and the fact that he is korean.

what does his immigrant status and his korean ethnicity got to do with this shooting? Nothing. Yet the media keeps on saying these irrelevent facts over and over again. You don't think we feel the pressure of being a minority? Don't belittle our concern over this shooting by condenscending and saying "if the student was black..." You DON'T need to play the role of *victim* all the time.

for the past week or so after the shooting there havent been many racist comments towards me and im a korean american but there have been some. i personally dont take these to offense cause its from my friends from my highschool that i know so its not that big of a deal. still these kind of things do make me kinda annoyed that it keeps being brought up because what does the fact that hes korean have to do with the fact that he was insane?

Sarah,

I didn't mean to offend you. My comments were geared towards Malena. Above, she stated that she prayed that the killer wasn't Black. Her co-worker (an Asian woman) was wishing that the shooter wasn't Asian.

I agree with you; his immigrant status has nothing to do with this shooting. Cho Seung-Hui was just mentally ill and disturbed.

But often times, when Black people commit crime, hip-hop culture is the scapegoat. Let's keep it real, the new meaning of the word "hip-hop" means "young, black man." It's hard not to be a victim, Sarah when - point blank - we suffer racism from other races as well as our own black women.

As a black man, we often get accused for the things we didn't do.
Just look at how, Malena (author of this blog), Oprah and the white media blamed hip-hop for Don Imus. They didn't have courage to attack his racist ways. So they opted to attack hip-hop's misogynist lyrics.

Malena asked, "Why is it that when mass-shootings like this one occur, many of us cross our pinkies and toes and hope that the perpetrator doesn't belong to our ethnic group?"

I wasn't trying to belittle your concern or be condenscending, Sarah. I was just simply answering the question.

Has anybody heard of any actual reported incidents of racist attacks against Asians as a result of the Virginia Tech shootings? Until I talked to my mom on the phone the other night (one whole week after the incident), it never even crossed my mind that I need to be concerned that the shooter was Asian. But my mom said that she and my dad had been worrying about it just before they released Cho Seung-Hui's identity.

I've been trying to search the web for any news that links Virginia Tech to racism against Asians, and I've found a lot of stuff written by paranoid Asian-Americans, but no actual reported incidents of racism.

Speaking as a white male, every time a major violent crime is committed that makes the big media for an extended performance, I say to myself "I hope it's a white person, or else whatever race, ethnicity or color is going to get marked again". It may not show up right away, but I guarantee you it is being filed away in people's minds, mostly white people's minds here in North America. Though, it can be filed in the minds of any other color, ethnicity or race than that of the person or persons who just committed the crime.