Communication

Virginia Tech: You Have My Best Wishes

As if a murder-suicide on my own campus wasn’t enough, Virginia Tech experiences something far worse of unspeakable magnitude.

What struck me about this whole situation, other than the insane account of the whole event, is how the nation is reacting. First, there are over 100+ groups on Facebook, and probably hundreds more on other social networks that condemn Cho Seung-Hui. He does deserve it. However, some of the few groups are titled “He Doesn’t Represent The Asian Race” or “He Doesn’t Represent Koreans.”

My mom also called me the day his name was revealed. She said:

“..good thing he wasn’t Chinese huh?”

Hmm..

I completely understand. It’s just a little disturbing to be reminded that even though we are an educated generation, we become sensative to these facts and put up a guard, or make some kind of inference. I’m sure when my friends look at me, they don’t see me as a Chinese person, maybe asian, but most certainly as Kevin (er more like k-wong). I don’t want to go into the arguement of this matter but it something that struck me while we move forward with another scar in history.

For those who have read Blink by Malcom Gladwell, will recall one of his vignettes on snap decisions where people will revert to quick judgements in time critical situations. Ethnicity was associated with specific stereotypes and gender was stereotyped in ability.

In any case, this is a sad moment for all of us and we can only hope that we won’t become more sheltered and over protected, but have the right measures to counteract these situations. Maybe it’s time to start training students in self defense.