Virginia Tech Massacre: Racial Discrimination

In our modern society, racial discrimination appears to be something that is frowned upon, no matter where you are. However, if you would pay just a little more attention to the things that happen in the world, racial discrimination is rampant, though subtly.

One recent example of racial discrimination is in the case of the Virginia Tech massacre.

One of the first descriptions obtained about Cho Seung-Hui, the shooter in the massacre, was that he was "a young man of Asian descent". This may not be enough to prove the existence of racial discrimination, but as more information about him was revealed, the media began to harp on the fact that he was a South Korean. Had he been a white American, would headlines still carry titles such as "Korean student named as Virginia Tech massacre gunman"?

Furthermore, the police was seen to have detained another Asian man during the incident. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=448955&in_page_id=1811&ct=5)
The question here is, if the shooter had not been an Asian, but rather, a white American, would the police have gone around arresting any white Americans who fit the bill? The answer is quite clearly a "no".

However, a reason for this might be due to the sheer number of white Americans on the campus as compared to the number of Asians. Due to this small number of Asians, the chances of detaining the killer would be greatly heightened with every Asian arrested, as compared to the odds in finding the criminal if random Americans were to be detained.

Even though many news articles report the killer as being a Korean, this may still not be a sign of racial discrimination. The news reports things that are out of the ordinary, such as a massacre, as it is information that people would want to know. If we are currently in anarchy, breaking news would then be the opposite of what we are seeing now, as murder and mayhem make up the norm, and is not worth reporting. This same idea can be applied to the reporting of the murderer as an Asian, or more specifically, a Korean. If the massacre happened in Korea, it is unlikely for the media to constantly repeat that the killer was Korean, as this is to be expected. However, if a Korean was to commit a crime in America, it would be newsworthy and thus attract the attention of the public because even though massacres are rare, massacres carried out by a minority race are even less likely to occur.

Thus, the existence of racial discrimination in the media is largely up to the reader to decide on, and clear judgments are difficult to pass, as they would often be rebutted by another reader with a different perception.