I haven’t written anything about the Virginia Tech murders because, first, I haven’t been writing at all, and, second, because everyone else on the web has been blogging their minds out about the tragedy. I thought at least one person ought to just listen quietly. Besides, what can I say that others haven’t already said, except pray for the victims, their families, and the family of Cho Seung-hui.
Then this morning I read an article on the New America Media website that struck a nerve. According to writer Andrew Lam, “non-Korean Asian-Americans are now heaving a sigh of relief” following the release of the information that the Virginia Tech shooter was a 23-year-old South Korean. Lam’s article, entitled “Let It Be Some Other ‘Asian,’” catalogues the emotional turmoil that faced various Asian-American groups as they waited to learn the ethnicity of the murderer.
The article clearly shows how quickly our society attributes negative actions and their causal characteristics to an entire ethnic group. Referring to the suicide-killer, one Muslim Pakistani noted: “If he’s a Paki and a Muslim, we might as well pack up and go home.” Think that’s just melodrama? Consider the Chinese-American Virginia Tech student originally believed by many to be the killer. Lam notes: “More than 200,000 people have visited his [blogsite] since the shootings and many left angry, racist epithets against [the] Chinese.”
As I read Lam’s article, a thought occurred to me. Cho Seung-hui didn’t kill himself and thirty-three other people because he was Korean. He did it because he was an English major. Recall, for a moment, the great writers who have taken their own lives. The number is, in fact, quite staggering and includes some of the greatest writers of the past century:
- Earnest Hemingway
- Virginia Woolf
- Hunter S. Thompson
- Yukio Mishima
- Sylvia Plath
- John Kennedy Toole
- John O’Brien
- Juan Carlos Gumucio
- Vladimir Mayakovsky
Granted, this is just a quick and incomplete list. If you’re still not convinced, head over to Wikipedia, where you can review a list of over 200 writers and journalists who committed suicide. Ironically, it’s the only profession-based suicide list Wikipedia maintains. And while I doubt the list is exhaustive and or even accurate, it certainly is racially and ethnically diverse.
Consider also the type of person that actually majors in English (and I should know; I’m one of them). They’re all emotions and insecurity, changing their wardrobe and hairstyle with the weather. They read too much and exercise too little. They actually like to watch foreign films. They probably experiment with drugs.
Isn’t that the kind of person that freak out one day and kill thirty-three people?
If you’re an English major (and you’ve not already writing a profanity-laden comment below), you may be feeling a bit annoyed and possibly insulted. It could be my negative characterization English majors angers you. You may think my generalizations are based on erroneous assumptions and idiotic prejudices. You may be asking yourself if a lunkhead like me really believes that thirty-three people died at Virginia Tech because a student chose English as his major.
Of course, I don’t. I entertain the odd notion (based upon the limited information that has been released in the news) that Cho Seung-hui was a mentally disturbed young man who desperately needed help. But if someone is simple-minded enough to attribute Cho Seung-hui’s propensity towards violence to an entire group, then they ought to at least have the decency to choose the statistically appropriate group—even if that group does include people who are like the people we want to be and not just the people we want to blame.
You can read Andrew Lam’s article here.