The Marmot brings to our attention two notable apologies by a Korean-American politician and the ROK Ambassador for the VA Tech shootings.
The first is Washington State Senator Paul Shin, speaking to fellow lawmakers: “It hurts me deeply, knowing what happened to Korea and how much the U.S. helped… This is not the way to pay back the blessings we received.” Legislators told him he had no need to apologize, but a tearful Shin said he felt compelled to do so because of his acceptance in America and his leadership position in the Korean American community.
The second was from the ROK Ambassador to the US, Lee Tae-shik. While an apology, or statement of regret or disbelief would be one thing, Lee said that the Korean-American community should use the incident at Virginia Tech to look back at itself, repent and seek to rejoin U.S. mainstream society. He then proposed that Korean churches conduct a relay fast for 32 days, and finished with an apology on behalf of Korea and Koreans.
What should we make of this? Let me quote the Marmot himself:
You can talk try to read into this tragedy cultural factors all you like (and I’m afraid that’s going to happen both in the United States and here in Korea), but the fact remains that there are 100,000 Korean students in the United States, not to mention about 1 million Korean-Americans, many of whom share the same cultural background as the shooter, and NONE of them have shot up their schools. The overwhelming majority, in fact, are upstanding members of their academic and residential communities. Cho Seung-hui is about as representative of the Korean community as the Columbine shooters were of the white community, that is to say, he’s not. In fact, if there is any group that seems “predisposed”Â? to this sort of violence in the United States, it’s not foreign Asian students, it’s white males.
And anyone who thinks otherwise should ask themselves how they would feel apologizing everytime a person of the same ethnicity as you did something attrocious. It’s a big world—you could find yourself very busy.
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Comments to this entry
Rommel
April 19, 2007
12:58 am
Does anybody know if the Saudis, Egyptians or other Arab ambassadors apologized to the United States after 9/11?
It's possible that they did and in my opinion completely reasonable to expect at least the Saudis to have apologized.
However, I cringed at
"In fact, if there is any group that seems "predisposed"Â? to this sort of violence in the United States, it's not foreign Asian students, it's white males"
Mass killings are statistically such a rare phenomenon I find it absurd that any ethnic demographic can be pegged as "predisposed" to commit such an atrocity. If we absolutely must assign blame, it seems to me at least slightly more rational to consider societal and economic factors above racial ones.
That said, I think its fair to assume that the gender of the killer is a male 99% of the time.
Pavlov3
April 19, 2007
2:29 am
In 2002 an armored vehicle ran over two school girls in Korea. It was an accident and a tragedy. Korean papers and activists demanded the driver and commander be charged with premeditated murder. USFK, the Secretary of State and even President Bush appologized repeatedly for the accident but all were deemed insuffient. Entertainers shaved their heads on TV, huge crowds (10,000+) gathered for midnight vigils an tore up huge American flags or burned them. Korean mobs defaced US Garrisons, destroyed personal property and rained stones worse onto US soldiers. Foreigners were regularly beaten including if I recall correctly an Italian man whose Korean friends had to shield from a mob. A popular shirt popped up later "I'm Canadian". It was a very unpleasant time to say the least. I was peronally referred to as a "Mejae nom, or kaesaki" by all walks of life, even by a 12 year old girl. (American Bastard and Son of a Bi***) I was denied service several times and had the pleasure of getting a huge wad of phlem spit all over my right leg on the subway. Some other idiot punched me in the back as I walked through a crowd.
Cho was scum. His nationality is irrelevant. The second he pulled the trigger my sympathy for him went to zero.
snow
April 19, 2007
2:43 am
Is this a trend whereby people feel that they need to apologize for everything? It seems that the apologia wagon train has been in full swing in recent times with the neverending demand from Korea and China that the Japanese apologize, apologies for slavery, etc. Is this an extension of the 'please don't hate me, I feel guilty and apologize' meme that seems so common in Western liberals, even when one has no reason to apologize?
zegan
April 19, 2007
3:34 am
snow
April 19, 2007
5:03 am
snow
April 19, 2007
5:07 am
James
April 19, 2007
8:27 am
ckrisz
April 19, 2007
12:19 pm
It's not all projection.
Aceface
April 19, 2007
1:14 pm
subadei
April 19, 2007
6:51 pm
ckrisz makes a good point though. If this had been a Muslim immigrant we'd likely see a backlash starting with neo-con pundits and maybe ending at the business end of a some rednecks fist, baseball bat or even firearm.
Brian
April 19, 2007
10:16 pm
If the shooter had been Muslim or Mexican, I think Americans would be justified in asking if his actions reflected the desire of factions within those identity groups.
There is plenty of evidence of the existence of both radical Muslims and Mexican Nationalists in America, and while I don't endorse the lynch mob mentality that would inevitably arise in such a situation, i would desire an investigation to determine if the crime was motivated by the goals of such radical groups.
It is rather refreshing to hear the Korean government encourage their American diaspora to recommit themselves to American society. Whether the Korean officials are merely playing lip service I cannot tell, but it does the Koreans credit that they would seek to make amends and recommit themselves to American society.
Does anyone think, had the shooter been any of the above mentioned identity groups, that a similar response would be forthcoming? If not, why?
Safrang
April 19, 2007
11:46 pm
I am disappointed by the Korean community leaders' apologizing for the incident. No doubt the incident was immensely tragic and will scar many lives and perhaps in the minds of a few will incite racial bias, but apologizing on behalf of a whole community for an individual who was abnormal by any cultural and societal standards puts everyone within that community, and all other communities that experience such events in an awkward position.
As a Muslim for instance, I have found it disturbing that many right-wing talking heads such as Glenn Beck and others have time and again insinuated that Muslims are not sincere in their condemnation of terrorists and should somehow apologize on behalf of their cor-eligionists -never mind the fact that in so many cases those same co-religionists menace the lives of their fellow Muslims more than they do others'.
Pavlov3
April 20, 2007
12:00 am
As to Muslim mass murders, there have been several in the US (when does it become mass? 3+) Post 911 and several more attempts, I won't say there has been no backlash, but there has been no mass persecutions as well. I have yet to see the nationally televised demonstration of 10000+ hanging effigies of Muslims, tearing up Saudi flags or advocating the murder or deportation of all Muslims. I don't see the establishments with "no arab" or "no Muslim" signs, please send me a picture, I have plenty from Korea of "no foreigner" and many of "no American". I also have some pretty cool photo shops of the WTC collapsing poking fun at Americans.
In short, your points are inflammatory and not based on reason at all. There are some bad people in the US that will take advantage of the situation, but it will be very limited, not like some other countries.
Pavlov3
April 20, 2007
12:02 am
lirelou
April 20, 2007
12:18 am
sunbin
April 20, 2007
5:01 am
---
why are you guys blaming the koreans?
1. their ethnicity named in the press. they feel they want to say something
2. the german apologized to the jew, even though they all hate hitler.
3. there are indeed some people in this world or in US that could make such association, even though it may be tiny. so it is just safe for the koreans to speak out.
Pavlov3
April 20, 2007
6:23 am
1: No argument here, their condolences are appropriate and welcome, apologies are the strange part.
2: Your moral eqivalency is a little disturbing in the leap of logic necessary. This leads to the x is Hitler type comments I hate. What happened in Germany was a National movement, not an individual action, also the scale is horrifically different etc etc etc...
3: There are idiots in the US and the world that will make the association and no ammount of apologies will change their bad behavior it may even spur it. ("See, they even admit it's their fault.....let's get em.") I don't see this as a part of the United States National character.
GI Korea
April 20, 2007
7:40 am
Curzon
April 20, 2007
8:04 am
Brian
April 20, 2007
9:29 pm
I'd definitely like to hear more about your experiences on the border. Too often I feel that people conduct political debate on national issues w/o understanding how the issues are lived by Americans in their daily lives.
It's hard for me to speak with authority on Mexican gangs an/or nationalists, b/c I live in Washington D.C. about 2000 miles away from the area where immigration is a real issue.
You, on the other hand, live right in the thick of it. You can provide a unique insight that most people lack.
subadei
April 20, 2007
9:36 pm
I rescind the "redneck" portion of my comment as it was a bit shallow and ill thought. However:
The mass murder of 9/11 wasn't "homegrown." It was, reasonably, perceived as a foreign attack carried out here.
Should a Muslim migrate to America as a young child and then 14 years later commit mass murder I think the reaction might be a bit different.
While I believe the "lack of backlash in light of 9/11 and other events is admirable":http://soobdujour.blogspot.com/2007/01/domestic-cohesion-in-commenting-on-post.html I'm also not deaf to the "dire" warnings regarding "Islam rising" coming from various pundits. I think it'd reach a crescendo in light of this scenario and I think you _would_ see a backlash.
Curtis Gale Weeks
April 21, 2007
9:31 am
No, I suspect that the need to apologize does not arise out of projection related to backlashes in Korea against foreigners, but out of racism. It's not so much the type of racism that denigrates other races (although it might, in the case of the backlash Pavlov describes) as pride in one's own race. It's a kind of racial monolithicism in practice: the Virginia Tech shooter is as good as being a near-brother or even clone. That he could have done what he did would then mean that the racial metrics would be pointing fingers back at all Koreans; it is shameful. The ROK Ambassador's suggestion that Korean-Americans re-join the U.S. mainstream is a pretty big clue, btw. Interestingly, however, it's almost an admission that the Korean-American are not real S. Koreans, now, and should find a new identity; maybe not.