Public Eye
April 17, 2007 10:38 AM

AAJA Says To Avoid Racial Identifiers In Virginia Tech Coverage

By
Brian Montopoli
Topics
Media Issues
(AP Photo/Casey Templeton)
The Asian American Journalist Association is calling on news outlets "to avoid using racial identifiers unless there is a compelling or germane reason" when identifying the Virginia Tech suspect.

Says the Association: "There is no evidence at this early point that the race or ethnicity of the suspected gunman has anything to do with the incident, and to include such mention serves only to unfairly portray an entire people. The effect of mentioning race can be powerfully harmful. It can subject people to unfair treatment based simply on skin color and heritage."

We now know the suspect was 23-year-old Tech senior Cho Seung-Hui, who yesterday was being identified only as a "young Asian male." In a press release, CBS News initially referred to him as Sueng-hui Cho. The discrepancy comes from the fact that Korean surnames are listed first, while in America they appear at the end of a name. CBS News is now referring to the suspect as Cho Seung-Hui, which follows the Korean tradition.

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by asian866 April 20, 2007 9:12 AM EDT
AAJA, as an Asian-American, I am somewhat ashamed of your reaction. I do not mean to be disrespectful, but the real tragedy here is that 32 innocent lives were stolen -not that the killer was identified as a South Korean student. Sure, the media could have been more PC by acknowledging the fact that Cho was a resident here since childhood and that makes him just as American as everyone else -BUT aren't you being a little too sensitive? You've been too quick to defend yourselves and now you just look silly. Your accusations are unfounded. You've assigned bad motives, when the truth is that the majority of non-Asians are intelligent enough to recognize that the race factor isn't really what's important in the big picture of this tragedy.
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by drgnhtny April 20, 2007 6:58 AM EDT
vmcgrew said :
"The "leaders" of the African American "Community" were jumping on the fact that the women of the Rutgers Basketball Team were "African American" and the perpetrator of the reprehensible crime was "White". He's not called "Caucasian American" and they black. He's "White" and they're "African Americans"."

The fact is that not everyone in the Rutgers team was African American. There were two Caucasians on the team as well, #21 HEATHER ZURICH and #12 KATIE ADAMS.
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by HelloDearling April 20, 2007 4:44 AM EDT
for those hateful comments, you obviously don't understand the full effects of the situation right now. just because you live in an area where racism apparently doesn't exists or something, doesn't give you the right to pretend you know it all.

you don't.

and i'm not wasting my time to provide "examples" on how racism has actually happened. use your own imagination.
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by deejaykuruma April 19, 2007 8:07 PM EDT
Please give me the last time you saw a journalist working for a huge media company actually just state the facts. 75% of the nation is spoon fed their opinions by journalist. Mentioning anything about South Korea or Asian really is irrelevant. Did you think he was black, with a name like that? If I saw the name, I would of already knew he was Korean. How about we educate ourselves to know where certain names come from? We expect it all on a plate. The media decides to go as far back to the city in South Korea he lived in. The AAJA is not trying to get fame, like everyone else said if you were in LA seeing Koreans in front of their stores with SHOTGUNS you would see why they are trying to prevent it, and there are supposedly reports of a backlash in certain communities. If you're saying AAJA doesn't care about the family, ask about those who think resorting to violence and vulgar words(ala facebook) towards his ethnic people, do THEY really care? Obviously not enough to educate themselves with the straight facts.
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by patrick404 April 19, 2007 5:14 AM EDT
You shouldn't generalize an entire group of people.
Japan and Germany are not the same countries that they once were in WWII. The former waged a brutal war in mainland China. The latter will always be remembered for the Holocaust. Both were severly punished for their actions. The first received the atom bomb. The second received harsh treatment from invading Soviet armies, many young German girls and women were raped by Soviet soldiers.

Japan and Germany today are not like the warlike nations they once were.

During WWII most American fighting men did not hate the Germans as a group. The perception being that Germany was led by a couple of rotten apples known as the Nazis leadership. However, the same view was not held towards the Japanese. The whole nation of Japan was regarded as vermin worthy of extermination.

A good example is the interment of Japanese-Americans. Many Japanese-Americans, aka Nisei fought in the U.S. Army in Europe with extradionary bravery and distinction.

Does the Tuskgee airmen sound familar? Afican-American fliers in their P-51 Mustangs never lost a B-17 or B-24 bomber under their watch from German fighters. Are all black men like the Tuskgee airmen cowardly sexual deviants?

Are all Arab Muslims living in America suicide bombers?

The negative fall back due to the ethnicity of the VT murders is that all Asians, particularly Koreans are prone to murderous tendencies.
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by patrick404 April 18, 2007 4:39 AM EDT
I recall when the federal building in Oklahoma was bombed, not so very civil jokes that make the remarks made by Imus about the Rutgers Women's basketball team seem mild regarding Muslims and Arabs. When it was revealed that a white guy, Timothy McVeigh did it, no jokes about him were made.

The fact that the shooter was an Asian puts into perspective how people of Arab/Muslim background must have felt post-911. I fear that the sorrow and grief will give away to vengeance. What he did was inexcusable and unjustifiable. Taking so many lives that could not defend themselves was a cowardly act. No different from the suicide bombers of 9-11 and in Iraq/Afghanistan.

I wished that the killer were a white guy, liked Tim McVeigh. The public and media seem to be more tolerant of a Caucasian mass murderer than a non-white.
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by joyo8729 April 18, 2007 2:54 AM EDT
I am Korean-American. This is a day of profound horror and sadness, and it's also a day of great shame for me. Having read Cho's psychotic writing sample, I'm certain that he harbored a deep hatred for Americans. Back when I lived in Seoul, anti-American sentiments often found a sympathetic audience in the form of plays and fiction. The villains always represented America. The victims always represented the struggling Korean masses. Many of these works of art were instigated by communists or angry lowlifes. Cho was of this breed of cowardly losers who don't have the courage nor the intelligence to articulate an opinion about the society in which they live. He simply brewed in his own madness and suicidal rage until it dragged him down to damnation. This began as a hate crime against America, but it ended as a hate crime against humanity. The likes of him deserve no mercy.
Reply to this comment
by joyo8729 April 18, 2007 2:50 AM EDT
I am Korean-American. This is a day of profound horror and sadness, and it's also a day of great shame for me. Having read Cho's psychotic writing sample, I'm certain that he harbored a deep hatred for Americans. Back when I lived in Seoul, anti-American sentiments often found a sympathetic audience in the form of plays and fiction. The villains always represented America. The victims always represented the struggling Korean masses. Many of these works of art were instigated by communists or angry lowlifes. Cho was of this breed of cowardly losers who don't have the courage nor the intelligence to articulate an opinion about the society in which they live. He simply brewed in his own madness and suicidal rage until it dragged him down to damnation. This began as a hate crime against America, but it ended as a hate crime against humanity. The likes of him deserve no mercy.
Reply to this comment
by joyo8729 April 18, 2007 2:47 AM EDT
I am Korean-American. This is a day of profound horror and sadness, and it's also a day of great shame for me. Having read Cho's psychotic writing sample, I'm certain that he harbored a deep hatred for Americans. Back when I lived in Seoul, anti-American sentiments often found a sympathetic audience in the form of plays and fiction. The villains always represented America. The victims always represented the struggling Korean masses. Many of these works of art were instigated by communists or angry lowlifes. Cho was of this breed of cowardly losers who don't have the courage nor the intelligence to articulate an opinion about the society in which they live. He simply brewed in his own madness and suicidal rage until it dragged him down to damnation. This began as a hate crime against America, but it ended as a hate crime against humanity. The likes of him deserve no mercy.
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by ronmwanga April 18, 2007 1:44 AM EDT
Just reporting the name should be enough. I've never understood why the race needs to be identified if the perp has already been caught, or killed and the case is closed. Of course this brings us back -- with a neat little rhetorical flip -- to the Duke accuser. Should her name be used? If she is mentally unstable? To this day I wonder about that. But if she is indeed mentally unstable and not -- as she very well might be -- criminally malicious -- then her image ought not to have been used on "60 Minutes." And since the Attorney general has opted for not filing criminal charges and going so far as to hint that it was because mainly of mental issues, I think "60 Minutes" went a bit far in using the image and not stopping at mentioning her name. But then again, last Sunday's "60 Minutes" was one hell of a delicate razors edge of racial sensibilities to juggle. I don't envy the Executive Producer. ... Well, maybe just a little.
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