This post has nothing to do with Cho Seung-Hui, but it might give all you non-Asian folks a slight idea of what kind of frustrations could cause a Korean kid in this country to lash out in such a terrible way.
This video makes the point more strongly than anything an adult could ever write. I wanted to cry and take this kid under my wing, tell him what's up and show him something different . . . wondering if it really is any different, as an adult (because I definitely could have made a pretty similar video when I was a kid).
THIS is how this country teaches Asian kids to think of themselves:
http://www.slanteyefortheroundeye.com/2008/11/video-ups-and-downs-of-being-asian.html
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That moment when he quoted some girls asking, "What's the Asian kid doing here?" and then said, "that hurts" - that made me want to cry. A lot of my friends at that age were Korean-Americans and I saw that kind of shit, the dirty looks for hanging out with "nerdy" Asian kids, all the time. I was probably seen as a nerd too. Except it's just like he said in the video - we were smart and we got good grades. We played basketball and video games just like anyone else. We played snow football in the winter when it snowed. Good times.
I remember when I'd tell my dad or my grandparents I was going over to Ed Pae's house, there was always this weird pause and lack of enthusiasm about it. They never liked me going over there. "Again? What do you do over there?" they'd say. But they were always excited about me hanging out with Alex Potter or Andrew Winch. These were all middle-class homes not far away from each other, the only difference being the race of the families living there...
Man. Fuck racism.
Ansel - thanks for leaving such an open, heartfelt comment. It's interesting, isn't it, how the words of a kid can hit us so much harder than those of an adult. And how we never quite shake off the hurt and frustrations we felt as children . . .
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