Welcome to Sepia Mutiny. If this is your first time visiting and you found us by reading the MSNBC/Newsweek article which commenced with:
The bodies had barely been removed when the racial epithets started pouring in. Cho Seung-Hui, the 23-year-old identified as the killer of 32 on the Virginia Tech campus, may have lived in the state since his elementary school days, but to the bigots in the blogosphere it was his origins in Korea that mattered most. “Koreans are the most hotheaded and macho of East Asians,” wrote one unnamed commentator on the Sepia Mutiny blog. “They are also sick and tired of losing their Korean girlfriends to white men with an Asian fetish.“
then please understand two very important truths:
1) Four out of the five comments which followed that quoted ignorance repudiated it consummately…
For shame.
This entire post decried stereotyping, and look at what you wrote about Koreans. My thoughts are with anxious students facebooking each other, heartbroken family members and everyone else affected by this tragedy. How can yours even go there? [SM]
2) “one unnamed commentator” does not speak for or represent this amazing, progressive, close-knit community
In fact, the views in the soundbite which MSNBC/Newsweek opportunistically and irresponsibly highlighted are NOT shared by the vast majority of those who write, comment or lurk here; they are the exception, not the rule on a blog which was created to enlighten, not divide. We are saddened that such a reputable and established source of news would misrepresent our site’s purpose and imply that the words of a rogue commenter are somehow indicative of the work we tirelessly try to do.
The bitter irony of this situation is that this website exists to create positive change and yet we were mischaracterized by an article about the valid concerns of the Korean American community after Monday’s massacre; as South Asian Americans, we sympathize and understand such issues because we are far too familiar with the concept of “backlash” ourselves.
We pray that Korean Americans are spared what Balbir Singh Sodhi suffered, that the rage which is to be expected after something so senseless isn’t misdirected so that it harms even more innocent people.
Just as one anonymous person who isn’t even a regular contributor here shouldn’t tarnish the reputation of an entire blog, one troubled, lost soul who took his pain out on innocents shouldn’t tarnish the reputation of an entire ethnic community. We are all suffering; let’s put aside the generalizations, stereotypes and impotent rage and work instead towards healing ourselves, our communities, our world.
::
This is what they have to say for themselves:
Dear Mr. Reeves,
I appreciate your note. Our intention was not to chastise Sepia Mutiny in any way–many blogs have been receiving derogatory comments, and Sepia is just one example. I think that anyone who visits the site will quickly find out what you speak of: that it’s an open forum for commentary, and with that comes the possibility of potentially-hateful comments. We would hope that our readers who are concerned about this site check it out and find that out for themselves. Unfortunately, unless we’ve introduced factual errors into a piece we do not print retractions, and we stand by this piece. I appreciate your input and interest and will keep it in mind as we move forward in our coverage.
Respectfully,
Jessica Bennett
Thanks for writing them, Maurice. We appreciate your efforts to rage against the useless, sloppy, too-proud-to-admit-they-erred machine.
Despite all the efforts of SM Intern and others who moderate comments, it is sad to see this.
EXACTLY. When I called out another commenter yesterday for a different, but similarly contemptuous and unpleasant stereotype (I’m not linking to it because the case is closed and there’s no need to go back there), I said he was “embarrassing the site” with his statement. This is the kind of embarrassment I meant. A lesson to us all!
Unfortunate, but I am glad that you posted this. I think it’s important to make people aware of the fact that while they have a right to their opinions, the site as a whole is in no way representative of the sort of bigoted, loaded bullshit that one person may decide to spew on an ad hoc basis.
No need to call specific people out by name or handle, folks. Let’s keep it positive and elevated.
Okay, yes. I realize that’s the way of the mob. Sorry…
“Just as one anonymous person who isn’t even a regular contributor here shouldn’t tarnish the reputation of an entire blog, one troubled, lost soul who took his pain out on innocents shouldn’t tarnish the reputation of an entire ethnic community.”
well said anna.
Its really sad…..The SM bloggers and interns take great pains to bring quality material and discussions to the blogosphere and few careless words (and what followed in this case) bring much pain. I completely agree with Siddhartha. Folks, words are very powerful-choose them carefully! One callous remark can hurt the genuine efforts of many.
It seems really unfair for Newsweek to associate a random bigoted anonymous comment with your fine website. Any website that gets tons of comments will have some obnoxious ones. They could have mentions that the owners of SM repudiated the comment later on in the comment thread.
On the other hand, it is cool that someone at Newsweek reads Sepia Mutiny. You actually get a mention in print (I am assuming that this will be in next week’s edition). I guess any plublicity is good plublicity in that it drives more people to the site.
Now SM will be talked about in the same breath as Debbie Schlussel. Sad…
Thats some undeserved bad rep. But hope that it will lead to traffic here and subsequent realization of the truth about this blog. They should have at least provided a link to the quoted blog entry!
Chocolat,
I think it is a web exclusive article.
As an avid reader of Sepia Mutiny, the community and direction of this blog has always been of protecting and telling stories of those who have been targeted due to their race. The many archived posts of this blog shows us this and extends to races outside of South Asia as well.
It is a disappointing and IRONIC to see the MSNBC writers single out this blog and single out a single comment by a single commentator. I applaud the story they wrote since it hopes to prevent backlash (Sepia Mutiny has the same mission) but they did it with selective journalism.
What people need to understand is while Sepia Mutiny does censor certain useless posts within reasonable time, it also allows different points of view to be expressed to EXPOSE the bigotry and shallow views of some people which then fuel discussion for change and improvement for others and ourselves.
if u turn on msnbc cable news now, after the commercial break, they will be discussing racist reactions against the korean american community. i wonder if this blog willl be mentioned.
I find it irresponsible of MSN/Newsweek for quoting such a comment. Did they peruse all online forums for anti-Korean remarks and this was all they found? If anything, they’re planting the seed.
I think the Asian and South Asian communities have always worked in partnerships.
I call bullshit on MSNBC and Newsweek. Bad reporting, bad reporter, go lie down!
Unfortunately, this is what passes for journalism these days. I was disgusted by what MSNBC did – even more than the original comment. With the original post, OK – some people are going to voice opinions that others do not agree with. For MSNBC to take that one post and feature it in the first paragraph was shameful. Not mentioning that the poster was criticized by everyone else on this blog was irresponsible.
Indeed, I have written at length my qualms with the whole notion of backlash in the United States. If Koreans feel under scrutiny, but nothing actually happens – is that news? We’re reporting on feelings now?
of all the sites from which newsweek/msnbc could have plucked a comment to support their story about fears of a backlash against koreans, this is the least suitable and representative. that comment is more of an anomaly than the standard of comments here and it’s a shame that the journalists didn’t take the trouble to peruse sm more closely to get a better sense of what type of blog it is and what it represents. there are far more vitriolic sites whose regular patrons indulge in this sort of thing – especially non-asian websites and more “mainstream” sites. even some of the comments by “real” americans on the bbc keep harping about the gunman’s korean birth and take great pains to point out that although he grew up in the u.s. and was for all intents and purposes an “american” kid, he was not a citizen and therefore “asian” and not “american.” very lax “parachute” journalism and very disappointing.
Oh god this is heartbreaking considering all the incredible work and knowledge base that SM provides for this community.
I think it’s pretty shitty of Newsweek as if they were looking to create trouble to find a non Korean website that happens to be South Asian and find one bad comment to single out? Did they miss the 100s of other positive and supportive comments in the past few days. WTF. I’m mad. Shame on Newsweek.
I will never again writing something on the web without putting more thought into it. This is terrible.
Wow. Here SM is doing its level best to bring attention to racial stereotyping and how dangerous it can be, and MSNBC runs something like this?
Someone should really set them straight.
…it should be coming on now. right after this break.
Thanks Manju– please keep us posted?
Buddy, that’s disingenuous, and downright surprising from you. I clarified the satirical nature of the ’embarassment’ immediately. It’s truly a reflection of your character to lump the comments in question here, with those from before.
You’re right, there’s no need to go back there, but you had to anyway. Bravo.
I can’t believe what was said by Prema in the cited blog entry. This isn’t a time for people to be opportunistic in seizing a moment to shove the blame onto any community of people. This is a time to come together and seriously reflect on what happened and why.
I also don’t understand how MSNBC could write such rubbish about Sepia like that…jerks. They make it sound like one of the regular bloggers wrote that stupid comment.
Oh holy crap! I absolutely love reading this blog – I really find the tenor of discussion here to be a breath of fresh air, intelligent and lively. The tributes to the student and professor killed in the rampage were beautiful and sensitive. I really cannot believe THIS is what gets SM mentioned in the mainstream press. Shame on that lazyass reporter!
My bad.
This is doubly bad for Sepia Mutiny. First they slander the website by associating it with a racist diatribe of an anonymous commenter. Second, they don’t even insert a proper hyperlink to your blog in a web only article. Notice they hyperlink to their own garbage.
I think the SMutineers should write and complain. Really.
It’s also possible, if not probable, that the whole “backlash against Koreans / Asians” meme is entirely a media-driven phenomenon. At the moment, a google news search for “korean backlash” produces only stories about the fear of such and no actual incidents. It’s not a given that if the perpetrator of a heinous crime is an ethnic minority that there will be a backlash against that community in the US. To suggest otherwise is highly irresponsible. Part of the racism driving the backlash against Arab Americans post 9/11 was the us-against-them mentality fostered by the president and the media. People were encouraged to see Arab Americans (and by extension, other brown people) as representatives of some violent ideological movement. This is not the same dynamic as the Virginia Tech incident. No one, not even the wingnut right, is suggesting that Koreans in the US be targeted (and those same wackos were/are pretty cavalier in their disdain for Muslims).
OMG! What terrible reporting! did the MSNBC “reporter” bother reading any of the comments that followed? I’m a semi-regular lurker, reader, and commenter on SM, as well as a korean-american, i find it totally offensive that MSNBC published an article that opened with such hate and fear mongering! i’ve always found the SM community to be inclusive, intelligent, and open-minded.
i think i might write to MSNBC and tell them how wrong they are. humph.
All I can draw from Newsweek’s article is that there’s fear of a backlash. There’s no actual evidence of a backlash itself, nor the beginnings of a backlash. The whole story is invented. It’s fear-mongering at its most devious.
I tell you, these chutiyas write such rubbish sometimes.
no mention. whew! Just an interview with a korean-american prof who was talking about how some K-A students were afraid to go to the rally for fear of retribution.
It’s also possible, if not probable, that the whole “backlash against Koreans / Asians” meme is entirely a media-driven phenomenon. At the moment, a google news search for “korean backlash” produces only stories about the fear of such and no actual incidents. It’s not a given that if the perpetrator of a heinous crime is an ethnic minority that there will be a backlash against that community in the US. To suggest otherwise is highly irresponsible.
Agreed – the press has not reported one real crime that has taken place yet. This is an attempt to get eyeballs on screens.
Part of the racism driving the backlash against Arab Americans post 9/11 was the us-against-them mentality fostered by the president and the media. People were encouraged to see Arab Americans (and by extension, other brown people) as representatives of some violent ideological movement. This is not the same dynamic as the Virginia Tech incident. No one, not even the wingnut right, is suggesting that Koreans in the US be targeted (and those same wackos were/are pretty cavalier in their disdain for Muslims).
I disagree with you here – but I don’t want to go off on a tangent.
JOAT:
Silver lining to every cloud. I guess. 🙂
Me, I intend to keep bringing it raw.
Oh no! I wish they had the common sense to read even a few of the comments posted before and after! I rarely post here but I do catch up with Asian-based news. I guess I belong to the generation inbetween Yo-Dad and some of the posters. I do wish they had the decency to read through the rest of the comments. The pain most of us felt when Dr. Loganathan was one of the first announced. So many of us could imagine our own relative…
Very sad and heart-breaking to be known worldwide in such a negative fashion. But on the other hand think of the people who will come and hopefully stay and become positive contributors. We can all hope and pray only for the best. That seems to be the way to deal with this.
“Just an interview with a korean-american prof who was talking about how some K-A students were afraid to go to the rally for fear of retribution.”
This is what post 9/11 America looks like.
Right on Preston. Today’s journalism is so sensationalisic it disgusts me at times. You can see it in the way the interview the people that were there that day, the people that were affected, Miss Samaha’s father was interviewed and he was just being milked for all it’s worth for the world to see. It was really shameful. Can you give the man 10 minutes to mourn his daughter god.
I hate that journalism is now entertainment. People plug in to for their daily Anna Nicole fix and if it isn’t as exciting as a school massacre it’s not newsworthy. I’m so disgusted right now.
That’s MSNBC for you. And Newsweek. Lazy, sometimes not technically inaccurate, but misleading. Sometimes inaccurate too.
Good move, Anna. I think it’s better to respond than “let the facts speak for themselves”. No one need fear about the need for SM’s image, though. The thoughtful people who never heard of this blog will come here and see what it is and maybe stay and enrich this community. People who are thoughtless enough to think ill of SM because of this Newsweek article…I think the SM crowd is better off without them.
This is what post 9/11 America looks like.
Uh – pre-9/11, there were times in the U.S. when blacks rode the back of the boss, were hanged for whistling at a white woman, Indian tribes would sign treaties only have them torn up, and South Asian men were forbidden by law to marry whites. Keep a little sense of perspective.
You know this just really hurts because I feel like SM is like my home and have taken liberties with crapping here sometimes too but this hurts because this is about perception outside the home. I can apologize, fight with, disagree with and make up with people within my home because I assume people inside would know me, but someone else looking in may not always see it that way.
I’ve been writing on the web for nearly 10 years and have only in recent years learnt the weight of the words. Written words don’t always translate what is on your mind especially when written in haste. I can attest to it. Better to take 10 more minutes to think it thru.
yes the media (especially tv) is milking this as usual. however, those people who are being milked have voluntarily agreed to be interviewed. after one bad experience with the media (meaning manipulative questioning aimed at eliciting emotions on cue) they should just avoid the media. one story i read on the loganathan family said the family declined to be interviewed. i understand the need to tell the world about your beautiful loved one whose life has been cruelly cut short, but sometimes the families end up being “victims” of the media as well without really knowing it.
Remember – it was Newsweek that reported the phony “Korans flushed down a toilet” story a couple of years ago which led to riots in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Guess Zakaria needs to crack some whips over there.
this is really egregious. considering the nasty things being said over at sites like debbieschlussel.com. Why would MSNBC single out Sepia Mutiny? I’m sure they have some dedicated personnel devoted to things like this who are savvy enough to know what this blog is about. I don’t know. it’s bizarre and unfortunate.
It’s all G my sister. Those who know, know. Those who don’t, forget them. You can’t please the whole world. Sometimes it’s “first thought best thought” other times, it’s “think it through.”
Newsweek is nothing. My own mother googled me. Not a pretty sight!
I can’t believe that reporter decided to quote the one person who made anti-korean remarks on this blog and basically ignore the majority of posters who admonished the views of that individual. I do believe the press condones the us verses them mentality whenever a brown/nonwhite person is involved. You just can’t believe everything you read in the press these days.
Oy…what craptacular work by MSNBC and Newsweek.
I’m just blown away by the brush they’ve tarred this site with. SM is the most open and welcoming site I’ve been on, and I love it here, and for them to highlight the crazed ravings of one loon as representative of this site…well I feel like I need to go throw up.
Anyone know if Fareed Zakaria reads SM?
This is like someone seeing a comment against racism on that Debbie chick’s blog and then declaring her website a great place to research tolerenet view’s about the world.
Now I know why MSNBC is channel 76 on my cable box. My cable company is trying to save me from ever having to view that station run by dunces.
On the bright side of things, only about 24 people a day ever view MSNBC.
Hear hear, ANNA! Way to LOOK FOR the first anti-Korean-American comment that popped up on your search engine and plop it into your article, without context, to bolster your half-assed fear of backlash angle, lazy MSNBC/Newsweek writer!
So, when’s that apology to SM appearing in web-exclusive format?
Speaking of bad reporting, I was talking to my mother yesterday (in desh) and she said some Indian papers at first reported the shooting as the reaction of a jilted lover. Apparently, he had been turned down by an Indian woman. Not just bad, but pointless, as well.
just wrote a can of WHOOP ass to msnbc. let’s see if that wakes them up.
This article in the New York Times, though well-intentioned, attests to the essential irrationality of nationalism; what other kind of ideology can make people feel ashamed and responsible for the isolated acts of a single individual who they never knew and would probably have never met? The statement applies of course to all who subscribe to this ideology either implicitly (just think about the implicit assumptions that underpin the article linked) or explicitly, not just the particular national group in question.
Hey there, as a Korean American I’d just like to thank you for this post. I can’t believe MSNBC would consider Sepia Mutiny, of all blogs, to be promotors of racism. That is absolutely ridiculous. I’ve been reading Sepia Mutiny on a semi-regular basis for a long time now, and I think it’s one of the most prejudice conscious sites on the ‘net. As Anna’s post stated, South Asians tend to be very much aware of racial prejudice and backlash in the post 9/11 world. Again, I’ve personally never found anything but open minds on this site and I think this recent post is really indicative of the intelligence, compassion, and good writing which is characteristic of the Sepia Mutiny Blog.
Personally I’ve yet to hear of any “backlash” against Koreans or North Asians. I think there’s definitely a general feeling of unease amongst Koreans (including myself), but I don’t think there’s been any actual targeting. I’ve got to echo some of the comments here and say that there’s really no “story” here, it’s just the media machine trying to get people worked up. We really do live in a “culture of fear”!
They singled out ONE comment to support their argument, but that reflects society. It’s a minority of people that are racists, because you need to be not-so-bright to hate an entire community for one person’s actions. But I agree that they shouldn’t have made it sound like nobody opposed that racist comment on the blog.