The Stereotyping of Asians and Asian-Americans

I know it is a rather sensitive subject, but I feel it needs to be discussed.

In our recent memory, on April 16, 2007, a horrible massacre occurred at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va. I was informed of this tragedy at around 2:30 P.M. that afternoon (the shooting having occured between 7 A.M. and 10 A.M. that morning). Being the media critic I am, I carefully watched the coverage around the Internet as well as the television. Prior to the release of the perpetrator's identity, all that was known was that the shooting had supposedly been instigated by an Asian male. As would be expected, the speculation began. People made guesses as to who the shooter was, based on knowing his ethnicity. Needless to say, though some, undoubtedly, were right, many of these speculations were ill-founded and therefore completely wrong. From the moment I heard his nationality, I began to fear the fate of the Asian and Asian-American community. I later even heard stories of Asian-Americans apologizing for the shooter's actions, simply because of their shared nationalities. To quote Dr. Joel D. Lieberman in this article,

“People’s sense of identity rests not just on your own accomplishments, but the failures and accomplishments of your group. If you’re a Mets fan and the Mets are doing well, you feel good about yourself. When a person from your group does something that reflects negatively, you feel bad about yourself. You have a desire to distance yourself from the person."

I don't think this means, however, that Asians and Asian-Americans should be treated as if we are in any way responsible for a crime we did not commit; our culture should not allow others to blame innocnent people simply to place blame upon someone.

A short time more than 8 years ago, a shooting occurred at Columbine High School. After the shooting, so-called 'goths' were feared, simply because the perpetrators of that shooting were of a similar social clique. Though this event occurred before I had the capability to grasp it, I know of the treatment of similar students.

The chaos that follows after such a tragedy is undeniable: people want justice brought upon the instigator. In most of these cases, though, the said instigator may take his or her life in the process. There can be no justice; the guilty party took its fate into its own hands. So what is there to be done? People begin to fear similar people.

I don't deny that the man behind this irrevocable tragedy had given signs, but I think we need to take such 'signs' with a grain of salt, so to speak. Recent stories have come to my attention, one of which being a case where a student was disciplined for a creative writing assignment that, in my opinion, was not at all any sign of distress.

Our society has previously established stereotypes for Asian-Americans, and in the addition of the new stereotype, of the distressed and violent murder, we see that others that share these qualities are also drawn into the realm of speculation.

To demonstrate my point, just recently, a Chinese-American student has been arrested because he created a map in a First Person Shooter of an environment roughly based on his school. [story here] I am horrified by what the writer states, which is an eerie echo of my logic here stated.

"Even with the authorities finding no evidence of gaming-related causes for the Virginia Tech shootings… It seems that we, as gamers, still are targeted as warped killers."

Being Asian-American and of a clique which is seen as 'geeks,' I have already personally seen friends of mine (and myself! to some extent) being feared within the school community. Often from the people that accuse us of stereotyping them. Such shows the hypocrisy of stereotypic behavior.

This event is changing America as we know it, as did its predecessor, the shooting at Columbine. My greatest fear is the final realization of the sheer atrocity of this attack. It challenges our feelings of safety; it challenges our trusts of people. Let's hope that the outcome is positive, and rather than shun the social pariahs further, our youth can accept them and stop this unnecessary division.