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.

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.

However, if you look at other more ‘general’ forums, the topic of Cho’s ethnicity is not really discussed extensively, primarily because it is not as relevant and because there is no evidence or inclination to show that Cho’s motivation was somehow related to his heritage or racial/ethnic background. I think most people would agree that there is nothing ‘un-American’ about his actions in the sense that we have seen other disturbed and seemingly inexplicable shootings such as this in the news. This is not like a suicide bombing or 9/11 where Americans struggled to disect the cultural/religious motivations behind the terrorists. Instead, we struggle to understand why a human being in our society would commit these crimes and we line them up with other school shootings in US history and try to find some sort of reasoning why some of our youth are so troubled.

Nowhere in his complaints did it suggest he was angry at Americans as a cultural or national entity. Again, he cited the American Columbine killers. And his hate was vague, disturbed, not necessarily just rich people.

Point is, Cho will go down as an American mass murderer, not a foreigner from Korea.

Interesting. I’m far from an expert on Korea, but Siegel’s explanation sounded like he started with his thesis (that Cho was nuthin’ but a good ol’ ‘Merican boy, simple as that) and then scanned some websites and cherry-picked Cho’s ravings to find support for that thesis.

I’d bet he doesn’t have the specific knowledge to pick up on certain aspects of Cho’s Koreanness like you did here and others in the media have as well.

At its heart, though, this case seems more like one of simple and tragic mental illness than a cross-cultural drama. I’m happy to leave it at that, and only felt the need bring up Cho’s mixed cultural identity because Mr. Siegel erroneously insisted otherwise.

Having done several stints in South Korea, I actually thought Cho sounded very “Korean”. The cadence and drone of his voice were all too familiar. Most of his complaints were nothing new either. There is a lot of ill will towards rich people over there. In a country where status conciousness has run amok, envy runs even deeper than in most other places. Thus, there is also a lot of ill will in Korea toward America, “white people”, Jews, and Israel. In many young East Asians’ eyes, America, “white people”, Jews, and Israel are essentially the same thing, and the majority of young Koreans take any and every opportunity to denigrate them. A good number of older Koreans are no better.

Cho actually reminded me of “Jijeonpa” in the early 1990s, that group of Koreans who abducted several people in Apkujondong and cannibalized them. They railed against rich people too and regretted that they did not have the opportunity to abduct an “orangejok” (”Orange tribe”: a certain group of spoiled rich Korean kids in 1990s Seoul.)