First of all, I want to thank you both for your comments.  I guess what I was pointing to was not the fact that we should not address injustice but I was pointing out the selfishness in reacting only when our own interests are at stake and nothing else.  Bob, for instance, I agree that racism is a great evil.  I fully agree that we should address it, but where is the outcry from the Korean community when a black man's picture is posted as the rapist?  Where is the indignity on our part when it is a Vietnamese person who is being picked on by the media, or a Latino?  I am not saying that decrying racism is wrong but I think it is a little self-serving to only point out the instances when it is Koreans being victimized.

Secondly, are you sure that his Koreanness had nothing to do with this?  If you have read the news stories, it points out that his sister went to Princeton University and he was a student at VT.  Now there is nothing wrong with that, but every Korean kid knows that there is a certain stigma of not going to an Ivy league school, especially if one of your sibblings does.  Secondly, his parents NEVER visitied him at school even when they lived in a neighboring community.  These traits are all a common theme of the Korean immigrant experience.  His anger that is evident in his plays also show something that is all too common in Koreans.  While his mental disturbances may have caused him to act, I am not so sure that his Koreanness did not have something to do with his anger.

Now granted that the media does nothing to point this out but what I am saying is that as Korean Americans, perhaps the issue we need to address is not the media's portrayal of this kid, but maybe what might have contributed to his depression and anger.  We all know that the Korean American upbringing does little to harbor healthy individuals.  Perhaps our anger is better suited toward the shame culture and oppression that comes not from the mainstream media but from our own upbringing and culture.

And Kat, I appreciate your comments also.  I agree that we need to address the feelings of guilt and anger that are oppressing us as a culture.  However, once again, maybe a part of the guilt or all of it has to do not with the media's constant and irritating reference to the kid's nationality but to our own shame culture and guilt culture.  We've been told from our childhood that when we do something bad, we make all Koreans look bad.  As ludricrist as that is, we started believing in that and as such, we've become a victim to the lies our culture sells to us.  I don't know if, for instance, my black friends were embarrased when a gang killer is described as black or my latino friends are described as Mexican.  Part of this is they are not as confucian as we are.  Maybe that is the source of our problems and not so much the mainstream media.

In closing, I just want to say, I don't think the media is innocent and yes, they are stupid to continue pointing out he is Korean.  But perhaps, and this is my point, that is not our biggest problem.  I think a larger problem is the evil that we inflect upon ourselves thorugh our shame based culture and our confucianness.  Thank you both for your comments.