Immigrant Acts
The idea that we live in a color blind society and that color blindness is a good thing has been deployed by conservatives to roll back racial justice and ciivil rights efforts and attack affirmative action and other race conscious remedies. Yet in certain contexts like law enforcement, can some of the principles behind color blindness be useful? i.e. would it be useful to ban police officers from considering race in order to eliminate the widespread practice of racial profiling?
The media is another context where a color-blind approach might actually have some benefit. The media's portrayal of the perpetrator of the campus killings at Virginia Tech has invoked harmful racial stereotypes agaisnt Asians and calls into quesiton of when it is appropriate for reporters to describe a person's race?
Criminal Law professor Paul Butler writes on blackprof.com: "I still don’t think race is probative at this point, however. It would have been more responsible for the school not to report that the killer was Asian. In the absence of any other information it provides an inappropriate focus. In a more personal and familiar context, I would be upset if the only information released about a mass murderer is that he was a black man."
One thing was clear from media reports of the Virginia Killer, he sure aint American like you and me.
Early media accounts described Cho as generally being "Asian" , but interestingly not Asian American.
Now most refer to Cho as being an immigrant using different terms. Some even go into great detail about his immigraiton status and call him a "South Korean immigrant", a South Korean national, or a Resident Alien. I was actually suprised to find out that he had come here when he was a child, and was a green card holder, since newspapers make him sound like he was an international student that just came from South Korea yesterday.
In any case, what exactly does his immigration status OR HIS PARENT'S IMMIGRATION STATUS have to do with anything? And are these descriptions of Cho's race really necessary? I think they promote the idea of Asians being foreigners, of green card holders not being rightful citizens of this country, and of immigrants being national security threats. One major article even printed an article about how South Korea is horrified at the massacre, as if Korea was somehow responsible for Cho's pernicious deeds or that Cho was not an Asian American even though he had lived here for much of his life. It was as if Korea was holding out a sign that said "Don't blame me!"
It's ironic that when Cho was asked to write his name by a teacher, he only wrote a question mark, as if he didn't have an identity or didn't know who he was a peson. In trying to understand what led Cho to commit these horrible killings, the media's treatment of Cho's race and immigrant status has exposed how little they understand about Asian Americans.
See for yourself how Cho's race has been depicted by the media and pick which one is most/least problematic:
From NYT:
He was a native of South Korea who grew up in Centreville, Va., a suburb of Washington, where his family owns a dry-cleaning business. He moved with his family to the United States at age 8, in 1992, according to federal immigration authorities, and was a legal permanent resident, not a citizen.
From LA times:
Seung-hui Cho, a child immigrant from South Korea who grew up in the Washington suburbs, was portrayed by fellow students and teachers as an insecure loner who ate by himself night after night, watched TV wrestling shows alone and, when spoken to, had little to say.
From Washinton Post:
Cho, of Centreville, the son of immigrants who run a dry cleaning business and the brother of a State Department contractor who graduated from Princeton, was described by those who encountered him over the years as at times angry, menacing, disturbed and so depressed that he seemed near tears.
Cho graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly in 2003. He turned 23 on Jan. 18 and had lived as a legal permanent resident since entering the United States through Detroit on Sept. 2, 1992, when he was 8 years old, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Cho held a green card through his parents, and he renewed it Oct. 27, 2003, according to Homeland Security. He listed his residence as Centreville.......
......Cho's sister, Sun Cho, graduated from Princeton University with a degree in economics in 2004 after she completed summer internships with the State Department in Washington and Bangkok.
A State Department spokesman said Sun Cho works as a contractor specializing in personnel matters.
From NPR:
Still, some at Virginia Tech say Seung-hui Cho, a 23-year-old South Korean national, had a history of troubling behavior...
Cho was a senior and English major at Virginia Tech who immigrated to the U.S. with his family at age eight. University President Charles Steger said Cho was living in one of the campus dorms, though not the one where the first shootings took place.
Cho and his family immigrated from South Korea in 1992, and members of Virginia's large Korean community tell NPR they fear a backlash. Centreville resident Pyung Jin Joe says his 17-year-old daughter was uncomfortable taking the bus to school Tuesday morning, so his wife drove her. "When she got to school," he says, "she felt that her classmates were looking at her a little bit differently… again because she's Korean, and it made her feel awkward."
From BBC:
Resident alien
Cho lived on the university campus, in a dormitory called Harper Hall.
Immigration records show that he was born in South Korea on 18 January 1984 and had moved to the US in 1992, when he was eight.
Cho had resident alien status, and had last renewed his green card in October 2003. However he is thought to have also retained his South Korean citizenship.
According to the Washington Post, his parents live in Fairfax County, an affluent suburb of Washington DC, just outside Arlington and Alexandria.
The Tribune also reported that Cho had shown recent signs of violent behaviour, including starting a fire in a dormitory and allegedly stalking some women.
His family runs a dry cleaning business and his sister graduated from the elite Princeton University, the paper added.
From CNN:
As disturbing details emerged about the resident alien from South Korea, students gathered by the thousands in the heart of their campus Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil.
The media is another context where a color-blind approach might actually have some benefit. The media's portrayal of the perpetrator of the campus killings at Virginia Tech has invoked harmful racial stereotypes agaisnt Asians and calls into quesiton of when it is appropriate for reporters to describe a person's race?
Criminal Law professor Paul Butler writes on blackprof.com: "I still don’t think race is probative at this point, however. It would have been more responsible for the school not to report that the killer was Asian. In the absence of any other information it provides an inappropriate focus. In a more personal and familiar context, I would be upset if the only information released about a mass murderer is that he was a black man."
One thing was clear from media reports of the Virginia Killer, he sure aint American like you and me.
Early media accounts described Cho as generally being "Asian" , but interestingly not Asian American.
Now most refer to Cho as being an immigrant using different terms. Some even go into great detail about his immigraiton status and call him a "South Korean immigrant", a South Korean national, or a Resident Alien. I was actually suprised to find out that he had come here when he was a child, and was a green card holder, since newspapers make him sound like he was an international student that just came from South Korea yesterday.
In any case, what exactly does his immigration status OR HIS PARENT'S IMMIGRATION STATUS have to do with anything? And are these descriptions of Cho's race really necessary? I think they promote the idea of Asians being foreigners, of green card holders not being rightful citizens of this country, and of immigrants being national security threats. One major article even printed an article about how South Korea is horrified at the massacre, as if Korea was somehow responsible for Cho's pernicious deeds or that Cho was not an Asian American even though he had lived here for much of his life. It was as if Korea was holding out a sign that said "Don't blame me!"
It's ironic that when Cho was asked to write his name by a teacher, he only wrote a question mark, as if he didn't have an identity or didn't know who he was a peson. In trying to understand what led Cho to commit these horrible killings, the media's treatment of Cho's race and immigrant status has exposed how little they understand about Asian Americans.
See for yourself how Cho's race has been depicted by the media and pick which one is most/least problematic:
From NYT:
He was a native of South Korea who grew up in Centreville, Va., a suburb of Washington, where his family owns a dry-cleaning business. He moved with his family to the United States at age 8, in 1992, according to federal immigration authorities, and was a legal permanent resident, not a citizen.
From LA times:
Seung-hui Cho, a child immigrant from South Korea who grew up in the Washington suburbs, was portrayed by fellow students and teachers as an insecure loner who ate by himself night after night, watched TV wrestling shows alone and, when spoken to, had little to say.
From Washinton Post:
Cho, of Centreville, the son of immigrants who run a dry cleaning business and the brother of a State Department contractor who graduated from Princeton, was described by those who encountered him over the years as at times angry, menacing, disturbed and so depressed that he seemed near tears.
Cho graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly in 2003. He turned 23 on Jan. 18 and had lived as a legal permanent resident since entering the United States through Detroit on Sept. 2, 1992, when he was 8 years old, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Cho held a green card through his parents, and he renewed it Oct. 27, 2003, according to Homeland Security. He listed his residence as Centreville.......
......Cho's sister, Sun Cho, graduated from Princeton University with a degree in economics in 2004 after she completed summer internships with the State Department in Washington and Bangkok.
A State Department spokesman said Sun Cho works as a contractor specializing in personnel matters.
From NPR:
Still, some at Virginia Tech say Seung-hui Cho, a 23-year-old South Korean national, had a history of troubling behavior...
Cho was a senior and English major at Virginia Tech who immigrated to the U.S. with his family at age eight. University President Charles Steger said Cho was living in one of the campus dorms, though not the one where the first shootings took place.
Cho and his family immigrated from South Korea in 1992, and members of Virginia's large Korean community tell NPR they fear a backlash. Centreville resident Pyung Jin Joe says his 17-year-old daughter was uncomfortable taking the bus to school Tuesday morning, so his wife drove her. "When she got to school," he says, "she felt that her classmates were looking at her a little bit differently… again because she's Korean, and it made her feel awkward."
From BBC:
Resident alien
Cho lived on the university campus, in a dormitory called Harper Hall.
Immigration records show that he was born in South Korea on 18 January 1984 and had moved to the US in 1992, when he was eight.
Cho had resident alien status, and had last renewed his green card in October 2003. However he is thought to have also retained his South Korean citizenship.
According to the Washington Post, his parents live in Fairfax County, an affluent suburb of Washington DC, just outside Arlington and Alexandria.
The Tribune also reported that Cho had shown recent signs of violent behaviour, including starting a fire in a dormitory and allegedly stalking some women.
His family runs a dry cleaning business and his sister graduated from the elite Princeton University, the paper added.
From CNN:
As disturbing details emerged about the resident alien from South Korea, students gathered by the thousands in the heart of their campus Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil.