Asian-American Culture and the Virginia tech tragedy (OPEN LETTER)
 

I'm Asian-American and I want to address a point that may have been overlooked in the media. There are SOME aspects of Asian-American culture that helps explain why Cho did what he did. These are cultural aspects that I believe the Asian-American community must SERIOUSLY address in order to prevent its members from being locked into a downward psychological spiral which sometimes (not all the times) lead to lashing out.

Issue #1: The HEAVY stigma of mental illness in the Asian-American community. I am a Filipino-American and I can't count the times when relatives or Pinoy friends say a common friend or acquaintance is "crazy" or "may topak" upon learning that the person is seeking professional help. The common belief is that if someone seeks help then they are "nuts". Who will be encouraged to seek help under such circumstances? So you see many kids (and definitely a lot of the older generation) carrying heavy psychic and emotional burdens and not having anywhere to turn for fear of being stigmatized by friends, neighbors, and relatives. All that anger and hurt is internalized. The #1 victim of this is themselves. But sometimes they lash out.

The rest can be found HERE

ehhhh he was still a nut.

My point was to explain it not justify it. What Cho did was unacceptable and UNJUSTIFIABLE. Nobody's disputing that. My blog entry was about Asian-American culture and how it needs to do some soul-searching.