A-list message, [A-List] Asian-American Students at Virginia Tech

I’d add another factor to your speculation: racism. It can really get to you when you are one of the few students of color in a vast sea of white students. It can be a real betrayal if you have been “accepted” all these years, and then suddenly you start to think there was actually a lot of racism, subtle racism around you, that you didn’t notice. What if he realized, “this white girl is never going to marry me; her parents are racists; she is a racist; she’s been playing me.”

I gotta say the first thing I thought of when they started announcing “an Asian student” was that his mind was blown by racism.

From: CeJ <jannuzi@xxxxxxxxx>

When I was at VA TECH/VPI & SU the single biggest contingent of

international students was the one from China, almost all invariably

there for science degrees including advanced level. Some 500 plus of

them. I did see some Koreans who came from S. Korea. I met two

Japanese students, both interestingly enough 'business majors'. I

thought that strange then because this was 1987-8 and that was when

Japan was being sold as a business model for the world (though the

first establishment wave of Japan-bashing was getting underway, thanks

to Clyde Prestowitz and Karl VanWolferen). It all makes more sense now

because Japan has so many colleges of engineering, who in Japan would

go to the US unless they had a lot of time and money?

As for the student who has been identified as the shooter, he is not a

typical 'international student' in that he really grew up in the US

before going to VT.

I have little doubt, though, that Asians (all over the US) should be

worried about the tragic events giving rise to anti-Asian (when

Americans say 'Asian' they usually mean of E. Asian or SE Asian

appearance, and not S. Asian) sentiments and incidents. In the case of

Blacksburg, I don't think so much from the student population at VT

but from the locals. That is, believe me, a hard-bitten part of

Appalachia surrounding the VT enclave.

The US media keep invoking the usual cliche's about the VT student

body being close-knit. But hang up on that dial a cliche' service now,

because like so many of these 25,000 plus universities populations, no

one hardly knows anyone else and anomie and alienation might be better

terms than close-knit.

BTW, I must say my year at VT was not very enjoyable. I worked as a

teaching assistant at a composition program/English department that

seems to have pissed off just about everyone else at the place. And

more than any supersized polysaturated bastion of American academia

that I have ever seen in the US--even more than Penn State--it seemed

to be totally unintegrated, totally out of place in its environment

there. One drive twenty miles in almost any direction (where there

were roads) and you would very quickly see what I mean. It was the

ultimate landgrant hellhole, if you ask me. Of course I am talking

about a place twenty years ago, so I might be completely wrong about

the place now. But if impressions on the media are anything to go by,

the place looks even less academically oriented and even more 'rah

rah' over things like monster sports events (when I was there the

basketball team was competitive but nothing stellar, and the football

was without distinction).

I thought the place then very scary, and now a place I rather thought

I had forgotten seems pretty vivid now.