Saw this news story on TV tonight while having dinner with my parents:
Are we to infer that you watched TV at the
dinner table? Oh...my....GAWD!! Where's the communication? Where's the family values?? How will they ever know your internal pain?!? Run, everyone, ruuuunnnnnn!!!!
Oh, wait a minute. I do that with my folks too. Good ol' what's-their-names!
I would imagine Bobby Lee will find some angle on this media-manufactured "hysteria" in time, although tonight might have been a little early.
For the time being, I've told my girlfriend she's gonna have to leave her ceremonial swords at home. No more impromptu demonstrations on crowded sidewalks. End of story. She's not happy about it, but really, it's best in these dangerous times...
She sent me this link tonight, with a little eye-roll smiley attached:
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/vi ... 1c93b895f2
"We are hesitating to go to the school's cafeteria for fear of possible retaliation," a student said. "We gather in threes or fours when we go out. Some stayed in their dormitory all day long." Some who came from Korea were thinking about returning to Korea, Lee said. Some 1,000 Korean students, including hundreds from Korea, are enrolled at Virginia Tech, he said.
She noted that
some of those interviewed almost seem like they
need to live in fear, as it would fit the stereotypical Korean persecution complex. There's nothing an already-insular culture needs more right now media reports feeding its insularity.
It's actually kinda refreshing to read stories like this one, which would seem to suggest that not everyone is spending their time giving Asians the hinky eye:
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/205838
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EDIT: For some reason, I was suddenly reminded of the Dawson College shooting we had up here last September, in Montreal. The shooter in this case killed one poor girl, wounded 19, and praised the Columbine killers in a note he left behind after he killed himself on the campus. He also hated the pretty much everything Cho hated, and then some. He was of
Indian descent, and to the best of my recollection, not ONE story appeared in the Canadian mainstream press suggesting Indians were suddenly fearful of being painted with the same brush, or that non-Indians were suddenly picking on them or telling them to go home. More stink was raised about his internet activities and wannabe-goth lifestyle. If he'd succeeded in killing as many people as Cho did, and the reportage suddenly received worldwide attention, perhaps similar stories to the ones we're hearing about fearful Korean-Americans and other Asian-Americans might have surfaced. But I still have a difficult time imagining it. Maybe we're just too liberal up here? Less reactionary? Don't know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawson_College_Shooting
