A Return to Classes Brings Unease for Some Virginia Tech AA Students
AA college students across the country are pulling together as some hate crime incidents are reported, likely fallout from the recent tragic shootings.
Virginia Tech freshman Bridgette Kim, 19, delayed her return to classes by one day so she could attend one more memorial and burial for the victims of the recent tragic shootings. Like her classmates she too will be returning to campus after a week of shared grief. But unlike many of them, Kim, a Korean American, is also quietly wondering: will I be treated differently now?
"It concerns me a little, especially as I go back to school," she said.
Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 students and faculty in a deadly rampage April 16. In the end he took his own life. Although it was the horrific act of one individual, endless media reports have emphasized the shooter's Korean American ethnicity, in effect generalizing an entire community.
It's something that has Asian Americans concerned, especially those AA students currently attending Virginia Tech.
"I hope one person's actions do not define an entire group, an entire ethnicity," said Kim, who was born in Maryland. "It was not our fault. We shouldn't be punished because of one person's actions."
It's a concern that isn't isolated to the Virginia Tech campus either. Similar sentiments have been echoed at college campuses across the country.
"When I walked outside the next morning, I couldn't help but feel like someone is going to make a snide remark considering I'm a young Asian American who could potentially fit the same description as Seung-Hui Cho," said Brandon Mita, a recent graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and a JACL program fellow.
A Day of Tragedy
Kim, a political science major, was on her way to Virginia Tech's Student Union when she first learned there had been some shootings at Norris Hall. For the next two and a half hours she remained locked down in the safety of the Student Union building.
Before long, rumors that the shooter was Asian filtered down to Kim and like many AAs she embarrassingly admits that thoughts of, 'Please let it be another Asian,' went through her mind.
"I was really upset by it," she said. "When I found out it was a South Korean, I thought, this is not good."
Although Kim had never met fellow Virginia Tech student Cho, she soon learned that he had lived 20 minutes from her own place. Her close friend currently lives in the same dorm where the shooter had lived but she too had never seen him before.
While the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech were still unfolding, Cho's much-publicized AA ethnicity was already having an impact on fellow AA students at the UIC campus.
On the morning of April 16, UIC's AA Coalition Committee - a youth group currently fighting for an AA Studies program - was holding a sit-in when a police officer approached the AA students, including Mita. He told them about the shootings at Virginia Tech earlier that morning. "Just keep that in the back of your mind," the officer said to them. "We would hate to have to take action."
Later that night while watching a news report on CNN Mita finally understood the reason for the officer's threatening tone. The Virginia Tech shooter was an AA student.
"To the rational human being, there would normally be no connection between Asian American students protesting for Asian American Studies in Illinois to the Asian student who committed these unthinkable crimes in Virginia," he said, "but when atrocities like this happen, folks lose their sense of judgment."
The Blame Game
For many in the Korean American community, those fateful two hours on April 16 have come to tarnish the positive images that have long surrounded this group. Shortly after the shootings, apologies from Cho's family, Korean American leaders, and even the prime minister of South Korea had been aired.
But many AAs believe Korean Americans have nothing to apologize for. Several have noted Cho's indiscriminate selection of his victims. All groups were targets of his rage, including AAs, South East Asians and other minorities.
"The gunman did not murder people because he was an 'Asian male.' Rather, a host of individual factors and personal experiences led Cho to hurt so many people," said Lisa Hanasono, a graduate student at Purdue University.
"While we grieve with the students and the families of this horrendous incident, we as a community need to be aware of the fact that the Asian American community is not responsible for what happened ... we are not at fault for the actions of one individual," said Mita.
But some have already taken to blaming AAs in general for Cho's brutal actions.
At Auburn University the beating of an Asian student by a group of white male students on April 19 is currently being investigated as a possible hate crime. Police are also looking into whether the incident was a result of animosity over the recent Virginia Tech shootings.
On the popular PostSecret Web site, a site where people submit their secrets, an individual posted a picture of an elderly Asian woman, accompanied by the message: "Asians scare me!" Although there is no reference to Virginia Tech, the photo was posted shortly after the shootings.
Heading Back
As AA students return to classes at Virginia Tech, fellow AA students from across the country can only imagine the difficulties that may be ahead of them.
"My heart goes out to the students who had to face an unimaginable horror that no one should ever have to face in their lifetime," said Yumi Sakugawa, an art major at UCLA. "Their strength and resolve to move on is more inspiration for the rest of us to prevent incidents like this from ever occurring again."
Although Kim is apprehensive about returning to the Virginia Tech campus, she is encouraged by all the support she has received from her Caucasian friends.
"They've been really supportive. They don't think I should be worried at all," she said. "We've all been going through the same thing. It's been a really trying time."
Kim plans to continue her education at Virginia Tech. Her only hope is that the school will be remembered for something more than these tragic shootings.
"It makes me sad because when people think of Virginia Tech they're not going to think of football or all the other great things ... they'll only think of the shootings," she said.
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