When the Virginia Tech shootings occurred, my roommate Roland and I were initially misinformed and led to believe that the shooter was a Chinese national. As we are both Chinese/Taiwanese Americans, we couldn’t help but look at each other and think, “Crap.”
Then the gunman’s identity was revealed. That evening, my other (Korean American) roommate Richard came home and expressed what seems to be on the hearts of Korean people everywhere: a compelling concern for the general well-being of their ethnic community.
Indeed, while the tragedies at VT have gripped the media worldwide, Koreans are taking the shooter’s identity especially personal:
South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun released a statement immediately following the announcement of Cho’s identity. “We are shocked by this unimaginable tragedy. I want to extend my personal condolences to the bereaved families and my prayers for the quick recovery of those injured.”
Yet while Koreans have expressed their sympathy over the deaths at Virginia Tech, many are also afraid they will become targets of revenge attacks aimed at the Korean community.
Korean media in Washington, D.C. reported that a majority of Korean businesses had closed early following Cho’s identification. A report in the Chosun Daily noted that Korean students at Virginia Tech locked themselves inside their dorm rooms, too afraid to come out. The same report stated that some Koreans had even begun preparing to leave the country.
As an Asian American I can empathize with the Korean community’s emotional reactions. Just as I admittedly felt a sense of relief when I discovered that the shooter was not of my ethnic background, I can imagine how my heart would’ve sank had it been confirmed that he was.
Every immigrant culture is bound by some level of solidarity, especially in one as racially hyper-aware as America, and just as these communities feel pride for its members’ individual successes (e.g. ethnic pride for athletes in professional American sports), so they feel shame for the individual atrocities committed by their members. For Asian cultures especially, the shame of losing face is a difficult burden to bear.
But do the actions of this one, so obviously psychologically disturbed individual really warrant a public apology from the figurehead of the South Korean government, let alone Korean-American communities? Are widespread fears of a racially-motivated backlash justified?
I sincerely don’t think so. In my opinion, such fears of anti-Korean hostility and harm are understandable but I find their extremity a bit irrational. I would argue that the reputation of the Korean community ultimately will not suffer because of one deranged student whose (largely incoherent) motivations could have belonged to a person of any race.
Granted, I have lived in California my whole life and now go to school in Southern California where Asians are well integrated into society and are not overtly stigmatized in any way. I cannot claim to know whether there will be anti-Korean sentiment exercised by other, more ignorant and backwards-thinking Americans living in other parts of the country where diversity is rare. But I do happen to believe that race relations have made some progress since the LA riots of 15 years ago, and that no one of reasonable decency, education and intelligence (especially at college campuses around the natioon) would dream of sticking the blame on Koreans as a collective whole.
Basically, I think it is unnecessary and inappropriate for Koreans to panic and be overrun with fears that Seung Cho has turned the world against them and stained their reputation forever. I understand that a bad apple can really harm the morale and the pride of one’s ethnic community, but to think that you are no longer safe living in this country, going about your daily activities, and pursuing your happiness and livelihood in freedom, just doesn’t make sense.
During a news report from the VT campus during the memorial services being held for the 32 victims, one student corrected the reporter by stating that they were mourning for not 32 families, but 33. “The Cho family has also lost a son and a brother as well,” the student said.
Though I am aware of America’s long history of racial discrimination, I feel Korean Americans need not worry about their collective well-being and should most certainly stop making public apologies for this tragedy on behalf of their community. Their responsibility for the actions of one unstable individual is nothing but imagined, and to believe that America would dare suggest that the Korean community bears guilt for his atrocities is nonsense.
The message that America need to send back is “It wasn’t your fault. We don’t blame you. You don’t need to apologize.” Because we can be sure that if Cho was not of a minority background, there would be no collective apologies. Why should the fact that he was Asian require it?
