There Are Negative Korean Stereotypes?

Posted by: Avinash on Monday, April 23rd, 2007

The tolerance machine is out in full-force in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. Korean-Americans aren’t going to wait for racism or stereotypes to formulate. They’re going for broke before anything starts up.

UC Berkeley Asian American student leaders said students should take steps to quell negative stereotypes about the South Korean community after Monday’s violence at Virginia Polytechnic Institute but do not fear widespread retaliation against the community. Students said the campus appreciation for diversity will prevent severe forms of discrimination against Korean Americans after Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui was revealed to be of South Korean descent, but said negative stereotypes stemming from the incident could persist against the community.

UC Berkeley’s student population is 4.1 percent Korean American, according to campus statistics.

I honestly can see why Koreans are a little wary of going back to school, but come on–the worst that would happen at Cal is that people stop bringing soju to parties for a few weeks. Although we seriously hope there aren’t any intolerant transgressions, the PC police always take these things out of hand and crack down on free expression to an extreme. Hopefully, these repercussions blow over quickly.

As for the here and now, the stereotypes that do exist involve puppies and Starcraft. Neither of these things seem indicative of rampage–to the contrary of popular thinking and conventional definitions of madness, Zergling rushes and canine slaughter do not promote gun violence.

So please, don’t take away our dog-eating jokes. That’s all I ask.

Students Seek To Discourage Stereotypes Post-Shooting [Daily Cal]
(Picture from Occidentalism)



Topics: Society, Students, UC Berkeley

Related Articles
    None Found

Comments are closed.