Scoopster News

American Exceptionalism: Hokie Nation

The true spirit of America.

At a candlelight vigil, the Virginia Tech community begins the healing process.

During the vigil, Trey Perkins spoke with CNN's Paula Zahn:

    

ZAHN:  How is it that your life was spared?  How were you able to get away?

PERKINS: I have no idea. I mean, I think it's by grace of God. I just lay down. I put a couple desks on their side. I just laid there and thought about my family, prayed and just hoped that he would leave.

     ZAHN:  Then you see this response here tonight.  As a student here, what does that mean to you?

PERKINS: It's incredible. I mean, I knew it would be like this just because this community and how close everyone is. And how supportive we are of each other as Hokies.

Virigina Tech Shooting: Blame Diversity?

Did the Diversity Culture shield the VT Shooter?

If Seung-Hui Cho had been a white student, would stronger action have been taken?

The Washington Times has revealed that Cho had a series of run-ins with the authorities:

Officials confirmed today that the gunman behind Monday's killing spree at Virginia Tech had previous run-ins with campus police for "annoying" two female students.

Officials also said Seing-Hui Cho, a 23-year-old from Centreville, had been admitted to a mental health facility in 2005.

Apparently, the VT school leadership handled his stalking internally:

Campus police Chief Wendell Flinchum said in November and then December 2005, campus police met with Mr. Cho after receiving complaints from female students.

In November 2005, "Cho had made contact in phone calls and in person with a female student." The student informed police, but "declined to press chargers," describing Cho's contact as "annoying," Mr. Flinchum said.

The investigating officer referred the case to the school's office of judicial affairs, which handled the discliplinary process.

The Chicago Tribune also reports that he had at one point started a fire in a dorm room.  If I had started a fire in my dorm room, written demented poems that scared my professors, and then had stalked two females, I am sure that my discipline would have been permanent expulsion from the university. 

This begs the question, did the pressure of diversity and 'retaining students of color' shield Cho from the consequences of his actions?

Virginia Tech Shooting: Blame America.

In an oddly-titled blog entry, Women's Space/The Margins blames America for raising someone like Cho Sueng-Hui.

"Cho Sueng-Hui and the Virginia Tech Massacre: These are the Sons America Has Raised" [Editor: So these are two sons?]

This is the young man who shot 32 people dead, then shot himself, and injured many more.  His name was Cho Seung-Hui.   He was born in South Korea and immigrated to the United States with his mom, dad and sister in 1992, when he was eight years old.  The family had a sponsor in the U.S., probably a relative, when they immigrated.  He was a permanent legal resident of the U.S.  His home was in Centreville, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C., and his folks supported the family by running a dry cleaning business.  Neighbors say they were nice people, hardworking.  He had a sister who attended Princeton.  He was quiet, liked to play basketball.

Not so fast. Any honest person knows that People of Color have perfected the art of "being in America" while not "being of America."

Many People of Color come to the United States out of ambition and desire for self-advancement yet simultaneously harbor a resentment towards Anglo-American society for being the source of that advancement.  People of Color and their professional advocates must address the forms of amerophobia and anglophobia that they tacitly transmit to their children.  Asian-Americans need to address uncomfortable questions about how they refer to the majority community behind closed doors.

I would suggest that Cheryl Lyndsey Seehof rewrite her offensive and treasonous blog title to something more accurate: Cho Sueng-Hi, Diversity strikes again.

Asian Netizens Worry about Racist Virginians.

Asians commenting at the 8Asians Blog (which has a header graphic with ten Asians in it!) have been thinking out aloud in the crudest ethnic stereotypes about "rural Virginia".

"Lex" is warning Asians in Virginia to get ready for a white mob:

Just imagine the racial outlash this is going to trigger. This is in rural Virginia for crying out loud. If I am Asian living in the area, I will be ready for crusade by the local militia.

"JSP" wants to make sure that while the authorities held back on reporting on the identity of the gunman, that we must make sure that all allegations of anti-Asian backlash get full media coverage:

I fear that yet another backlash may occur. If not nationally, then locally in Virginia. If there are any incidents racially motivated backlash towards asians, it should be reported.

Isn't this defamation of character towards the community that was just savaged?

Meanwhile, Lex isn't satisfied with defaming White Virginians, he goes after Michelle Malking for being a self-hating Asian.  Her crime? She points out the similarity between the VT Shooting and the 1991 Iowa Shooting involving another Asian. Malkin's post today echoes my suspicion about why the VT Police were dilatory in releasing the gunman's identity: the Asian-American Journalists Association has urged people not to refer to the gunman's ethnicity! The 1984 logic of multiculturalism strikes again.

Oliver Williamson sums it up best at 8Asians:

There shouldn’t be any racial backlash. Not in the U.S., anyway. Of course, if a similar crime had been committed in South Korea by a “white guy”, then there would be massive rallies in front of the U.S. Embassy and Seoul City Hall and A LOT of nastiness all over the country. And there would probably be annual marches on this date for the next several years. What will almost certainly happen is a massive effort by the Koreans to shift all the blame onto America, as they do with nearly everything else, including their own extreme materialism. Some may even go so far as to declare that Cho Seung-Hui was framed by the Americans.  I’m glad I’m not in South Korea anymore

So let's get this straight: An Asian murders 31 Americans (and foreign students) but 'they' are afraid of 'us' ?!

Meanwhile, the UK's Daily Mail reveals the identity of the Bizarre Love Triangle that may have sparked this rampage: the Asian gunman, a white (Jewish?) female, and a black male.

Asian-American?!

Try: Un-hyphenated Asian.

TRIBE TRACKER: VT Gunman was Asian immigrant. Diversity strikes again.

Was it a Hate Crime?

In a rambling note, Cho Seung-Hui, a Green Card holder from South Korea, denounced his fellow students at Virginia Tech reflecting an animus towards Americans:

Alleged Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-hui reportedly left a note listing his grievances against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans."

The Chicago Tribune reports the note was found in Cho's Harper Hall dorm room on the Blacksburg, Va., campus. Cho, 23, a legal permanent resident who came to the United States in 1992, was described as a loner by university spokesman Larry Hincker.

As anyone who has attended an American university with foreign international students knows, non-Anglosphere students often have a chip on their shoulders about the country they have been strategizing on how to get to.

Moreover, all ethnicities---except Anglo-Americans---tend to view the world through the prism of race so there will always be an ethnic dimension to their decision making.  Cho's rambling note mocks Americans for being wealthy and immoral which is a common complaint amongst America's detractors.

The South Korean Government has rightly apologized as one of its citizens has unleashed the worst school shooting massacre in American history:

South Korea expressed its condolences, and said it hoped that the tragedy would not "stir up racial prejudice or confrontation."

"We are in shock beyond description," said Cho Byung-se, a Foreign Ministry official handling North American affairs.

If the situation had been reversed--an American student in Korea--everyone from Al Jazeera to the BBC would have been pontificating about American gun culture and racial bias. And CNN would be showing wall-to-wall footage of the rent-a-mob in Seoul.

I am deeply grieved by this crime despite having no connection with VT or even the State of Virginia. But some of our own have been senselessly slaughtered and it is a legitimiate line of enquiry to ask 'Why?'.

Anglosphere reports Shooter's Ethnicity

NZ & UK News Outlets report Gunman is Asian.

The New Zealand Herald compiled eyewitness accounts of the Virginia Tech shooting and buried the references to the gunman's ethnicity halfway down the page as does the BBC:

Virginia Tech student Erin Sheehan said she survived an attack on her German class and described the gunman.

She said: "He was, I would say, about a little bit under six feet tall, young looking, Asian, dressed sort of strangely, almost like a boy scout, very short-sleeved light, tan shirt and some sort of ammo vest with black over it."

But at least it gets reported. It's a legitmate line of enquiry.

VT Shooting: Why Hide the Gunman's Identity?

TRIBE-TRACKER: VT Shooter was Asian.

Diana Hartman over at BC Magazine has summarized the open source intelligence on the identity of today's gunman at the Virginia Tech massacre:

The gunman, wearing a maroon hat and black leather jacket, said nothing as he fired shots. He had a 9-mm pistol and a 22-caliber handgun. Including the gunman, 31 people are believed dead. It is reported that the gunman killed himself. Twenty-nine people are being treated by local hospitals. The gunman has been described as a young Asian-American male.

Why couldn't Police Chief Wendell Flinchum, Virginia Tech Police Department, say that?  In the live press conference I am watching as I blog, he is avoiding providing any information on the identity of the gunman.  Just as I, as a Society of Professional Journalists member, have received instructions ("Diversity Toolbox") on how to report on ethnicity in the news, I presume that US police leadership have similarly been instructed to downplay the ethnicity of criminals when they are not white.