How To Make Sense of Senseless Acts of Violence Committed by Asian and Asian American Men

Julianne Hing

How To Make Sense of Senseless Acts of Violence Committed by Asian and Asian American Men

As a regular reader of the blog Angry Asian Man, I’m well familiar with what’s become a seemingly daily feature there, affectionately titled “Asians Behaving Badly.” Amongst the political news and television reviews, Angry Asian Man also features quick mentions of Asians and Asian Americans who’ve made headlines for their criminal transgressions. Extortion, domestic abuse, tax evasion, murder! We Asians really are capable of doing it all.

But my heart sank when I found out the killer in Wednesday night’s stabbing at Virginia Tech had an Asian surname. My thought process went something like this:

1) A Chinese Virginia Tech grad student decapitated his friend?
2) An Asian American student, Cho Seung-hui, was responsible for the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech where 32 people were killed.
3) This summer, it was an Asian guy, Li Weiguang, who stabbed and later decapitated a fellow passenger on the Greyhound bus they were riding in Canada.

And then I said aloud, to no one in particular: “What is up with Asian and Asian American men?” Their Asianness was foremost in my mind. It was how I linked the three incidents together. I knew my knee-jerk racial profiling was the wrong, wrong, wrong path to start heading down, but I wanted answers.

So I started asking more questions.

4) How do we make sense of these incidents?
5) What is it about this particular brand of horrific violence?
6) Did he use the same kind of knife my mama uses to hack through pig's feet?

I turned immediately to my boyfriend and started hurling these questions at him. He’s my default sounding board and an Asian American man, an added bonus. I knew I’d get some special insight that I, as an Asian American woman, didn’t possess. He listened very patiently while I went on and on about “these men” before saying, “Maybe you can find other words for this. It’s kind of hurtful for you to talk about this in terms of “Asian and Asian American men,” like we’re all the same.”

I had no time for this and steamrolled him. “True. BUT my line of questioning is what most of the rest of society is asking themselves.” There was a moment’s pause before he said, “Most of society, except Asian and Asian American males.”

To which I, long after the day’s news has already moved on, now want to tell him: You were totally on point. I'm sorry babe.

Posted at 10:10 AM, Jan 23, 2009 in Media Analysis | Permalink | View Comments

Comments

Don't be so coy about decrting structural discrimination or bias. And, who's your BF that we should accept his opinion?

I actually have been searching the internet in hopes of finding some meaning myself. I'm white american and I was wondering is there something in the asian culture that would influence asians to cut off the head and hold it after doing so?...
It seemed odd to me that at Virginia Tech (where I went to college) and the Canadian Bus Story..
they both held the head after they cut it off..
oh well.. i am searching for answers as well...
i carry a gun for protection... i live in the 4th largest city in america...and I profile anyone and anybody I come in contact with..i make no apologies for that...
i think these killers are all mentally ill and unfortunately mental illness finally cracks at some point.. when the crap comes down and you happen to be the unlucky person around these individuals... you better have some protection on you just in case.. i've always been prepared.. sure wish someone at Virginia Tech (both incidences) and the Greyhound Bus would have been prepared as well... most certainly lives may have been saved... and I make now apology for the use of guns in self defense

All 3 cases are isolated incidents although happen to be committed by Asian men. I am more concerned with the massacre at V Tech by Cho. That guy was American raised. His mental illness and killing spree was triggered by his perception that white women and society as a whole refused to accept him. Many Asian men born or raised here feel the same type of hurt and anger to some similar degree as Cho, but most would not act out on that anger. We can't just blame the individual. Society has to look at itself. The double standard and racist treatment of Asian men as social rejects in this American society will no doubt continue to lead to more of these incidents in the future. We all need to do something to fully and socially integrate Asian men into the crowd. It is only the morally right thing to do.