New York Times On V Tech Shooting: A Lot Of Arabs Were Attacked
The New York Times wraps up an article on the Virginia Tech shootings thusly:
Asian-American students at Virginia Tech reacted to news about the gunman’s identity with shock and a measure of anxiety about a possible backlash against them.“My parents are actually worried about retaliation against Asians,” said Lyu Boaz, a third-year accounting student who was born in South Korea and became an American citizen a year ago. “After 9/11, a lot of Arabs were attacked for that reason.”
Mr. Boaz, a resident adviser at Pritchard Hall, said many Korean-American students had left campus immediately. Parents of other Korean-American students were preparing to pick up their children on Tuesday afternoon and take them home.
I'm guessing a lot of Non-Korean-American students left the campus immediately- as well as anyone with a still functioning survival instinct, but that wouldn't fit the 'Racist-American' storyline.
[Useless and tired rant against the New York Times follows below the fold]
It's been some years now since 19 Arabs crashed jumbo jets into symbolic buildings in America to start a war, and the TV then showed Arabs dancing in the streets celebrating it. This was an assault on a civilization and way of life for political/religious purposes. It was meant to get people riled up, and it did. The great number of those that could, some at great personal and financial sacrifice, joined the military. A very few people in a country of 300 million took it upon themselves to break the law and retaliate on a personal level.
Human Rights Watch has what should be the most extensive list of post 9/11 'hate crimes' available. I use quotes because they are in the business of finding 'hate crimes' and include figures from the notorious CAIR organization that are dubious at best. They include borderline cases like, sadly, an all too common convenience store killing where:
According to press reports, his wife, Randa Karas, believes he was murdered because he was mistaken for a Muslim.... Local police told Human Rights Watch that they do not believe his murder was bias-motivated because there is no evidence to indicate anti-Arab or anti-Muslim bias.
And not so borderline cases this one:
On September 17, 2001, Ali Almansoop, a forty-four year old Yemini Arab, was shot and killed in his home in Lincoln Park, Michigan after being awoken from his sleep by Brent David Seever. At the time of his murder, Almansoop was in bed with Seever's ex-girlfriend.Mr. Seever had been stalking his ex-girlfriend before the murder.
A bit of a stretch to call that a hate crime. I'm not minimizing the fears of the young student's parents, or the people that suffered unjustly after 9/11. It's just that The Times has a habit of missing the story in order to promote a point of view.
It is becoming apparent that the killer in the V Tech case was also upset about an ex-girlfriend, or perhaps a perceived ex-girlfriend. This is a kid that was also allegedly being treated by drugs for a psychological problem, and instructors were forbidden from removing him from campus even though he had been taking pictures of girls from beneath their desks, among other things. This was not a premeditated attack on one society by another, and I don't see Koreans dancing on the graves of the murdered. This was a loner knucklehead who needed help that the system couldn't give him.
The New York Times has become a quasi tabloid with little sense of dignity, even in the face of a worthy news story. It has fallen to pandering to a popular psychology and all too often lacks for grownup editing. By pandering 'me-too' victim-hood for the average Korean in the face of real horror the Times makes political points and deflects attention from the real victims.
"Yeah, there are a bunch of dead people but look over here at what might happen when cracker gets pissed off."
According to the current storyline when something bad happens compare it immediately to 9/11- which diminishes that event- and then search for possible 'backlash' from 'Americans.' Play this as the real problem, not the event itself.
One has to wonder from the fearmongering stories if immigrants feel unsafe in America? I don't think they normally do feel unsafe. Consider the remark from the student above, "My parents are actually worried…" If my kid were in a school that had a nut murder 32 of his classmates I would pull him out of there in a New York minute until I could evaluate the situation.
The conversation probably went something like this: "Come home." "But Mom I'm perfectly all right here with my friends." "I don't care about your friends, they're going to be singling out Koreans now, come home!" That's dog-bites-man, not news.
This is small potatoes compared to other more significant and well-researched criticisms of the New York Times. I just hate the fact that it has sunk so low to attempt to stir up more shit in the middle of a real tragedy. These were innocent kids and their teachers who knew there was trouble in the making but were helpless to stop it. That's the story, and the Times is missing it.
Update: Oh boy. Islam makes an appearance in the form of Ismail Ax. Go figure.
