Unfortunately, the horrific shooting rampage at Virginia Tech (240 miles from D.C.), which is now being described as the deadliest in U.S. history may does have a brown angle, if only to further a reckless agenda. The death toll is up to 32 33; at least 22 28 people are injured. Tipster Hema emailed us about Debbie Schlussel, a blogger who didn’t waste any time before irresponsibly blaming “Pakis” for the tragedy (I have quoted most of it so you don’t have to go to the site– it doesn’t deserve the traffic):
Who is the “Asian” Mass Murderer at Virginia Tech?
Here’s what we know about the murderer of at least 32 students and maimer of at least 28 more at Virginia Tech, today:
* The murderer has been identified by law enforcement and media reports as “a young Asian male.”
* The Virginia Tech campus has a very large Muslim community, many of which are from Pakistan (per terrorism investigator Bill Warner).
* Pakis are considered “Asian.”
snip
If I were Asian, I’d be legitimately upset with this broad generalization of the mass murderer’s identity.
Why am I speculating that the “Asian” gunman is a Pakistani Muslim? Because law enforcement and the media strangely won’t tell us more specifically who the gunman is. Why?
And the ass-covering finale:
Even if it does not turn out that the shooter is Muslim, this is a demonstration to Muslim jihadists all over that it is extremely easy to shoot and kill multiple American college students.
So far, there is no indication that she might be right. I pray no one decides to indulge their inner-vigilante after reading her hate-spew. Enough people have been hurt by this nightmare.
May the memory of those students whose lives were stolen be eternal. This is just heart-breaking. I’ll update this story as it develops…
::
UPDATE 8: Minal Panchal is confirmed among the lost (Thanks, brown_fob).
Information about Minal’s death came in late because no immediate family member was present on campus.I remember her life here.
UPDATE 7: Information about the gunman (Thanks, Desishiksa):
Cho Seung Hui was a South Korean native who immigrated to this country as a child, officials said. His lifeless body was found in Norris Hall, a classroom building, among those of several other slain students, Virginia state police superintendent Col. Steve Flaherty said. Cho, a senior, had apparently taken his own life. Cho graduated in 2003 from Westfield High School in Fairfax…
Cho, described by fellow students a loner, cleared a federal criminal background check at the time his green card was renewed in 2003, as did his family, a U.S. immigration official said. [WaPo]
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p>UPDATE 6: Regarding VoiceInTheHead’s comment:
It has also been reported that an Indian student, Minal Panchal, is missing after the shootout. [DNA]
UPDATE 5: A desi Professor is among the lost (Thanks, Murugan):
Reports have it that an Indian-origin professor is among those killed in the campus massacre.
Professor G V Loganathan of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was teaching in a class in the Norris Hall – one of the crime scenes – when the gunman went on rampage. [IBN]Abhi remembers him here.
UPDATE 4: In a move which shocks absolutely no one, the blogger who inspired our post uses the latest information in this case (Chinese, not “Paki”) to rail against furriners coming to America for college (Thanks again, Hema):
So, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech massacre is a Chinese national here on a student visa. And today, this alien did “the job that Americans just won’t do.”
Remember that the next time you hear President Bush and Condi Clueless waxing lyrical about how we need more foreign students in America. We do not. Remember the Mana Saleh Almanajam and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, two Saudi students in Tampa, last year, who hijacked a school bus full of kids while wearing trench coats in 90-plus degree weather?
…And remember: Just because this attacker was not Muslim, doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of potential and hopeful ones among the thousands Muslim nations are sending here to “study” under Saudi King Abdullah’s scholarships.[pure crap]See? This is a teaching opportunity, to remind us of how evil Muslims are.
UPDATE 3: Campus police thought it was an “isolated incident”; the email warning they sent was probably too little, too late.
“You can second guess all day. We acted on the best information we had.”
At 9:29 a.m., the university sent an e-mail warning students that a gunman was on the loose and to stay indoors. At about that time, a shooter opened fire at the engineering school’s Norris Hall, killing 30 people. Several students leapt to safety from upper stories, and the gunman’s body was later found at the building, Flinchum said. [Bloomberg]
UPDATE 2: CircusInJungle points us to Wiki, which first said the shooter was “James Jay Kim”. The article has been updated, no longer reflects that.
UPDATE 1: Amardeep provides a link where an eye-witness IDs the suspect as “Asian”; the shooter may have been looking for his girlfriend.
*I have amended the title (was Tragedy at Virginia Tech; Quick, Blame Pakis) and original content of this post because it seemed like the appropriate thing to do; several of Schlussel’s quotes have been removed because they serve no further purpose here. Additionally, updates are now in reverse-chronological order, to facilitate information dissemination.
That makes presidential candidate Thompson look wise. He predicted that authorities would find Counterstrike in the shooter’s hard drive.
Some questions remain:
What is the significance of the words “Ismail Ax” painted on Cho’s arms?
Was he stalking the first girl that was killed? Its highly unlikely that he actually had a romantic relationship with her, seeing as how much of an anti-social loner and wierdo this guy was.
Did he deliberately avoid shooting fellow east asians? There must be tons of them at Virginia Tech yet his victims seem to be all white, black, desi, middle-easterners or hispanic.
There are 249 comments, could you be a bit more specific about what disappointed you? I’m just trying to clarify things, since this is such an important, sensitive issue which I take very seriously.
In the most fucked up evil twist of all the coverage of this by conservative bloggers, they’re blaming virginia tech or the state of virginia for this tragedy by passing some legislation/regulation barring college students from carrying firearms on campus, saying that if the other kids were armed, this tragedy would have been avoided. how many degrees beyond fucked up and insane will such people get, somehow finding a “logical” way to blame this on gun control attempts.
I stand corrected. One of his victims was east asian: Henry Lee. Another, Mary Karen Read, appears to be half-korean.
Not in America in the common usage, Only in UK.
Tell that to the wingnut whose shoddy blogging inspired this post. She’s very much American and she used it UK-ishtyle.
Anna, have you considered the fact that Debbie Schlussel does not deserve our time and consideration? I used to get riled up about these things, and I even did my bit to boo Ann Coulter. I have decided to comfort myself with the realisation that this idiotic mongering to the lowest common denominator will eventually disgust and alienate them. Dinesh D’Souza is the laughing stock of every reality-based ole-school republican I know. Coulter lost her columnist contracts recently. Very soon, Schlussel will lose what little remains of her credibility.
It’s screwed up, but not surprising. But one thing is surprising… Components of the mainstream media are delving into his background (he played video games, wrote violent plays, etc.. etc..) which I think it’s not instructive (Quentin Tarantino has written stuff 10x as violent, but he gets to be a judge at Cannes), but such analysis is usually levied toward more readily identifiable “homegrown” school shooters.
Margaret Cho, like usual, addresses his race in the best sense possible:
http://margaretcho.com/blog/ourhumanity.htm
We have put a tribute post for Waleed Shalaan, one of the victims. We would love to hear from everyone, esp. anyone who new Waleed. This is a time for coming together… all races, religions and nationalities… since it seems that the murderer managed to kill people from diverse backgrounds. Ironic in how things work sometimes.
Waleed Shaalan: A Tribute to a Muslim Brother at VA Tech http://muslimmatters.org/2007/04/18/waleed-shaalan-a-tribute-to-a-muslim-brother-at-va-tech/
I am sorry to disapoint the redneck trailer trashites out there – this chap wasn’t a muslim or a paki’ – he was in your words a kink – i believe a christian? never mind – if you look at the intial blogs and comments after this tragedy the ‘extremist progun/everyone of different hue=terrorist, lets attack Iran and everyone else – especially if we think they are muslim’ seemed to be praying that the shooter should be a muslim – in fact even know some are linking this chap to Islam. Anyway I pray that the US takes stock at this tragedy and increases restrictions on guns – also there needs to be a stronger background and psychological tests on those wanting weapons – especially people who want to kill muslims.
My condolences to all concerned, its really awful – especially when individuals try to gain political mileage of such tragedies.
From a ‘Pakistani Muslim in the UK’ my prayers are with you all – in times like this – victims are not just those killed and their families but also the family of the killer.
Can you imagine what the mother and father must be going through?
Salaam, Namaste to you all.
It’s striking to me how poorly America understands emotional arithmetic; e.g. “if someone does thus, they must be feeling thusly, and if I do this-and-so, it will exacerbate / mitigate the problem.” That first-order emotional calculation just doesn’t seem to be a common skill anymore. A great many comments on this thread indicate this is a problem in the South Asian community, and clearly it’s a problem in American society at large.
That skill, that ability to understand motivation and emotional connection, is (in my opinion) in large part responsible for things like this shooting at Virginia Tech, for the response we see to it, and for bigger picture issues like the Iraq war, America’s declining global popularity, etc.
It sounds very New Age touchy-feely hippie-ish, but it’s true.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with understanding what makes another person tick, and once you do, it becomes very difficult to paint them with a broad brush, or to hate them, or to marginalize them. The act of understanding forces you to come to grips with them as a human being; it requires grappling with things you don’t fully comprehend yourself, and talking to people you maybe don’t like so much, and…well, it requires work.
So yeah. We don’t seem to do that anymore. More’s the pity.
And while I don’t agree with the gun-nuts that everyone should buy a gun to be truly safe, on the other hand I probably wouldn’t mind investing in some !@%&$ KEVLAR, you know?
” I have decided to comfort myself with the realisation that this idiotic mongering to the lowest common denominator will eventually disgust and alienate them. Dinesh D’Souza is the laughing stock of every reality-based ole-school republican I know. Coulter lost her columnist contracts recently. Very soon, Schlussel will lose what little remains of her credibility.”
DDia I think you are being very naive…though I understand your disgust with fools like coulter, d’jackass..thing is..these fools are like roaches you have to devote full attention to crushing them, otherwise they swarm; and thereby gain implicit credibility. Clowns like d’jackass, schlussel command more power in inner circles than the you could ever imagine.
It turns out that “Ismail Ax” was the gamer ID Cho used when playing online video games. He had it written in red ink on his arms when he went on his murderous rampage.
Now lets see if all the social conservatives who rail against the pernicious lyrics of gangsta rap will have the intellectual honesty to also slam the violent video games that are responsible for creating monsters like Cho, who are not from the ghetto but from the “model minority” living in prosperous suburbia.
Republican candidate for president, Thompson, has been wise enough to take a stand against these incredibly violent video games being distributed indiscriminately. Where are the right wing talk show jerks on this issue?
Pictures and bio has been posted on Waleed Shaalan:
Waleed Shaalan: A Tribute to a Muslim Brother at VA Tech http://muslimmatters.org/2007/04/18/waleed-shaalan-a-tribute-to-a-muslim-brother-at-va-tech/
At the risk of being deleted and/or banned or just plain irrelevant:
No offense intended, but long before the Virginia Tech massacre, I heard Korean-American males described as hotheaded, possessive, and chauvinist by several Far East Asian women who had dated them–a couple of whom ended up being stalked after breaking up, something that never happened with their non-Korean American boyfriends. Why and how has this stereotype persisted? Perhaps we can look at where it comes from (media? language? customs? values?), since all stereotypes are grounded in grains of truth. The danger lies in the tendency to generalize. Please know that I do not believe Korean-American males should be described this way nor that anyone should believe this about them. What I have related here can’t excuse nor explain the behavior of Cho Seung-Hui, though I am curious as to why I’ve heard similarly unflattering descriptions of Korean-American males from those who’ve had firsthand experience in close relationships with Korean-American males. They can’t all be mentally ill like Cho Seung-Hui, and surely something instigated the comment made by the “unnamed commenter.” It’s a question that won’t be resolved in this comment thread, but one that should be addressed and discussed somewhere.
wdust:
I am curious to know that as well, very much so. Perhaps that can be discussed in a different thread (apologies if there are already several on that). I decided to focus on Korean-American males in my previous post since the comment from the “unnamed commenter” referred to Korean-American males.
wdust, are we still discussing this ridiculous comment about Korean men? Can we desist? It is ridiculous, irrelevant, and takes attention away from the larger concerns around this issue and away from honoring those who died so senselessly.
Why should it be? Basically you are asking a specific version of the larger question–is there truth to a stereotype. Sure, there’s some truth to every stereotype. But that’s what makes them dangerous–using a few specific truths to generalize to a larger population as a whole, a population that may or may not share those characteristics–and that’s why they shouldn’t be entertained in any serious or meaningful way.
I don’t know about “still”… I left my opinion after reading the msnbc article and finding the thread that contained the ridiculous comment. I’m sorry if I’ve arrived late to the game–as I wrote, I post at the risk of being irrelevant. I don’t want to detract from honoring anyone; however, I think I asked some large questions.
I think there’s a lot to be learned by getting into the specifics of the larger question, “Is there truth to a stereotype?” particularly when the specifics involve culture, which varies between large populations as well as between two humans. But that’s just my opinion, my own fascinations as a student of linguistics, neuropsychology, and anthropology. Sorry to have taken up so much space.
wdust, there is no need to apologize for “taking up space”. if you’re new here, you have no way of knowing that we often end up blogging about stereotypes and the ensuing comment threads delve in to exactly what you are fascinated by– please stay and you’ll see that for yourself.
you’re right, there is a lot to learn about such questions– but we’re all a bit raw right now so maybe we’ll save them and ask them another time.
Thank you, Anna. I have been reading SM for a few months and have seen those threads. I didn’t participate, but today the msnbc article–with an isolated SM blog comment in the first paragraph!–surprised me and triggered memories of similar comments from others. I was appalled, but then I had to ask, where does it come from? It shocks me, what I read here–horrific when innocent people are treated unjustly, and makes me wish we could just reach into the perpetrators’ brains and rewire a few things. That said, answers to difficult questions can be as depressing as they can be exhilarating.
In case anyone’s interested, keith olbermann also condemned debbie schlussel’s vitriol last night on countdown. you can read the transcript here.
45 ylrsings said: “i seriously believe we need to put an emphasis on mental health and well-being in the US. perhaps some tragedies like this could be prevented if screenings were more routine and mandatory.
also, the systems in place to purchase firearms both legally and illegally in the US are far too simple. gun violence plagues our nation in many ways. i really wonder how many tragedies in every type of community need to take place before our nation stops cowering behind the NRA and an outdated constitutional right.”
Yes, yes, and YES! Thank you pointing out the specter of the craptastic US mental health care system. When I recently contacted my university’s health center to talk to a professional after a friend was killed in Iraq, I was told that I was too young to have any “real” problems and that I just needed to buck up, to give a personally experienced example of the older folks’ mentality when it comes to…mentality. Much like the poor S. Asian engineering student at the University of Missouri at Rolla, this kid at VT apparently exhibited numerous warning signs, according to his English professor Lucinda Roy who actually reported said signs to police and administration. (I saw that on both Oprah and the CBS News, to cite my sources.) Sadly, the alerted authorities chose to wait until both students snapped.
And on your second point, I hear the NRA argument that the 2nd Amendment can be interpreted to imply the right for any red-blooded American to be armed to the teeth. So not what it means, but okay. The same document also once said that African-Americans were only three-fifths of a person, and should be noted as such Census records. That was changed after it was realized to be moronic, so why shouldn’t there be a little more spring cleaning? Cheers to you for bringing up both points.
Incidentally and a bit off topic but in response to a previously offended poster, the term “cracker” was coined specifically as a descriptive for white people who were born and raised in Florida pre-WWI. It was used by those folks, in description of themselves, to help distinguish between “native” Floridians and those who moved down later, much like one might refer to oneself as a “New Yorker.” There’s a kids’ book called something like “Strawberry Girl,” written as I recall by a “cracker,” in which the characters use it as a badge of honor. Zora Neale Hurston also described this use in her WPA ethnographic work from the 1930s. As an impoverished white girl not born in Florida, I prefer “white trash” if one feels the need to insult me based on finances and ethnicity, just so that there’s no confusion. I like precision, even in hate speech. ;o)
And I apologize for the obscenely long dependent clauses, especially after ANNA’s typical eloquence.
wdust, didn’t mean to make you feel unwelcome – it’s just that there have been a lot of posts lately in response to the comment cited by MSNBC, both on this thread and otherwise. You are always welcome to bring up points or comments; please don’t let me make you feel policed, or unwelcome, or like you are taking up space. I am just frustrated because I think the argument made was 100% bull, and I also think that we’ve given it more attention that it deserves. Just a personal opinion.
Hello, I just want to tell you that I am a muslim student sent here from lebanon as an exchange student to study at a high school. You can’t judge people by their religion, I agree that some people thinks that they are doing “jihad” and do crazy stuff but they are some people like me that are just like regular americans , I play sports , listen to ROCK , play guitar and I can’t even hurt a fly. I am just saying that you can’t say oh he’s a muslim he’s a terrorist so please I hope you change reconsider 😉 and if u want to discuss email me moe_0_9@horsemail.com
Please see muslimmatters.org… Waleed was a hero in his death…
I know that many americans are furious at the koreans after the school shootings but I am asking that they not judge the whole based upon the terrible actions of one. As an middle eastern male I understand how events such as these cause great hatred and blame towards a group of people. Please learn from the events from 9/11 and don’t repeat them again.
This is to the person that posted the remark about the Koreans being hot headed. I seriously doubt that you would say that to one face to face. Its all good when you are able to insult a whole group of people behind your computer screen. Ignorance and in your case pure stupidity takes away from what really matters and that is supporting those at V. Tech in their time of need. I should mention he shot asian students as well, specifically a korean girl and another asian male. The media seems not to mention these people making it seem as though it was a racial biased crime. I seriously hope that those reading these comments from a white supremacist are able to evaluate the situation and tragedy based on how mentally unstable this man was, not the fact that he was a korean. If you are a minority, such as myself you should be outraged by this racist remark. What if one day it is not a Asian that shot up a school but instead a Mexican or a Black person and you too are in the hot seat for what a crazy person has done?
please guys, as a muslim from pakistan i remember the hatred directed at me and other muslims – in fact at others from a southasian /mideast background due to the actions of a few nutcases. now we have an individual who happens to be from a south korean background who has killed and hurt a lot of people – we already have comments like ‘koreans are hotheaded’etc – yesterday i was walking down to the local drugstore and i used to be greeted by this chinese gentleman – he couldn’t even meet my gaze – i greeted him and he smiled back with the same greeting but he carried on walking – its happening again – our fellow human beings are being hurt – they happen to be not just korean but it seems anyone from an east asian background.
there are extremists out there who may want to whip things up – like that schussel or coutler or whatever – we need to stand bt the victims of this shooting – all of them including our korean brothers/sisters.
It’s funny how this whackjob is accusing Keith Olbermann as a Nazi. I don’t know whether I should cry or just laugh at her moronic vitriol when her own views are more racist than anyone else besides Coulter and Malkin.
I know you mean well, but I really haven’t seen any evidence of this. Just read an article from the CSMonitor suggesting that Americans have difficulty seeing this event in a racial context. Even the most bigoted white supremacists see Koreans as an “ideal minority”. Thus the desperate attempt to pin it on Desis.
Can’t we do better than that? Something should be done. But don’t turn to mediamatters. That website is run by David Brock. The man is a discredited liar. There must be better venues to register disgust with Schlussel.
Prema you’re an idiot. JD(an indian-dude that lived in Korea)
Jeet, I did not realize hotheadedness was contagious. Maybe it’s something in the water?