Comments on: NPR’s Robert Siegel: Cho Lived and Died as an American

By: john patrick

john patrick — Mon, 14 May 2007 04:21:50 +0000

Wow, this thread got pretty gross. I’m pretty amazed that some of this stuff didn’t get deleted.

By: john patrick

john patrick — Mon, 14 May 2007 04:21:00 +0000

Wow, this thread got pretty gross. I’m pretty amazed that some of this stuff didn’t get deleted.

By: 8 Asians » What’s in a name? EVERYTHING - Cho Seung-Hui vs. Seung-Hui Cho

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 05:30:25 +0000

[...] This really bothered me after a while, especially after CNN showed the receipt of one of the guns that Seung-Hui had bought, where he had written his name as “Seung Cho.” Why does this bother me and a lot of Asian-Americans? Because this is not only how Seung-Hui Cho referred to himself (besides the times he signed into class as “?”), but because Cho Seung-Hui is the direct Korean translation and is “foreign.” As Claire had commented on the NPR opinion piece, “Cho Lived and Died as an American,” Seung-Hui was living the immigrant experience that many Asian-Americans have been living. [...]

By: rom

rom — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 18:18:44 +0000

Your professor are lying to you is silly over the top comment… p.s. I am a professor

By: rom

rom — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 18:18:00 +0000

Your professor are lying to you is silly over the top comment… p.s. I am a professor

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 08:12:25 +0000

Oh, and to Mr. Williamson:

I am truly sorry people have given you such a hard time simply for the color of your skin. However, you are simply perpetrating the problem by generalizing all Asian Americans in this way, as well as by assuming that all Asian Americans HAVE spent time in Eastern Asia, especially long enough to pick up some of those nasty traits you seem to think all Asians have. It’s not as though we deliberately leave the US or live in a different country long enough to go find an inner racist.

And personally? I love Leonardo di Caprio.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 08:12:00 +0000

Oh, and to Mr. Williamson:

And personally? I love Leonardo di Caprio.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 07:58:22 +0000

Honestly, I don’t believe that Cho’s issues are truly a matter of him being a member of any particular race or ethnicity. What he did was horrible, but it’s not because he was American this or Korean that. It’s because he was a misfit and mentally unstable, a potent and clearly dangerous combination.

However, out of curiosity, I’d like to know why Mr. Clark believes that I should be considered less American than that figurative girl from Iowa. I was born, raised, and still reside in California. For the sake of my argument, I will admit that I can be a complete “Valley Girl,” a la Alicia Silverstone in Clueless, minus the ridiculous wealth. I surf, adore baseball, and make a mean apple pie. I even rowed crew for my university. If you’d never seen me, and just read what I wrote or heard me speak, you would think that I am that farm-raised Iowa girl (actually in this case, California). I am as American as anyone born or raised here is, with the exception of the Native Americans, the ONLY bona fide 100% Americans that live here.

If I have values, it’s because I believe in them, not because they were thrust upon me from birth. I respect my elders because I believe it’s the right thing (and really, only when it IS the right thing). I honor and protect my family because I love them. One might say that these values are stereotypically “Asian,” but aren’t they good values to have no matter what “race” one associates him or herself with?

As an anthropology major, I believe that race is a social construct. As an individual, I believe it is a useless one, as well.