Asian America On Campus 2007
May 31, 2007
Two Asians and a Latino in Gabacho Land
May 25, 2007
Writer Eng Jailed in New York
May 23, 2007
NEW YORK—Kenneth Che-Tew Eng, controversial “hate” columnist was arrested May 11 and is being held in a New York jail without bail on assault and harassment charges, the Village Voice reports.
Eng, 23, was arraigned on charges of threatening to kill his Queens neighbors Marissa Addison and her mother and one of their pets on April 30. He is also accused of attempted assault, menacing, possession of a weapon and harassment.
Eng allegedly approached the mother and daughter as they stood in their driveway with their pet and said, “If your dog bites me, I will kill you and your family.” He then swung a hammer at her and the dog, according to the Queens district attorney’s office.
Eng is a former contributor to San Francisco-based AsianWeek, writing from New York. He was fired in February after public outcry over a column entitled “Why I Hate Blacks.” The owners of the publication fired Eng and deleted the offending piece from their Web site after Asian American and African American groups denounced Eng’s column and its publication.
Saying he admired Virginia Tech shooter Seung Hui Cho, Eng often refers to himself an “Asian supremacist.” He has also penned columns excoriating whites and Asians.
Eng’s attorney has asked that he undergo a mental examination. He is scheduled to return to court in Queens on June 13.
Some relevant linkage:
Immigration, theater, flicks, gunfire in K-Town
May 22, 2007
Come home, Candy!
May 19, 2007
I was just wandering the Net and stumbled across Jason Kaneshiro’s Webomatica, tech, movies, music and bottle caps blog over on WordPress. Jason’s review of New York-based artist Adrian Tomine’s indie comic sensation Optic Nerve led to a spot on WIRED’s Street Cred.
The protagonist/antagonist of the Optic Nerve series is the self-loathing Ben Tanaka.
Click here to catch up on the eerily true relationship fuck ups of Ben Tanaka and follow this link to learn more about the underground comic superstar about to pop like that pimple on your nose, Tomine.
You’ve gotta admit there’s something compelling about a gun-toting Asian graffiti bomber who doubles as a stripper exotic dancer. Well, Candy Ellen Srichandr is exactly that. Her reported involvement in a tagging related murder in Van Nuys, Calif. has had her on the lam since last May.
This is late notice, but watch PBS’ Independent Lens tonight. Sentenced Home tells the story of three Seattle Cambodian American youths as they face the Catch 22 of U.S. immigration laws revised to allow mass deportations of legal residents in the aftermath of 9/11. Repeats May 24.
West Hollywood’s Roger Yasukawa was the fastest of all on day three of qualifying for this year’s Indianapolis 500 piloting Dreyer/Reinbold Honda-powered Dallara to the day’s top average speed of 220.654. He’ll start next Sunday’s race in the middle of the eighth row.
Asian American Women: High Suicide Rates
May 18, 2007
University studies in Texas and California reveal sobering statistics from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services on suicide and depression among U.S. Asian women.
CNN reports that American women of Asian ancestry aged 15-24 have the highest suicide rate in the nation.
California State University Fullerton researcher Eliza Noh says suicide is the second leading cause of death among young Asian American women.
Baylor University psychologist Dr. Dung Ngo says cultural and familial pressures are key factors.
Before Blacksburg
May 18, 2007
Before Seung Hui Cho’s rampage at Virginia Tech that left 33 dead last month, before Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold shocked the nation in 1999 by killing 12 at Columbine High in Colorado, there was violin protégé Wayne Lo’s 1992 murder spree at Simon’s Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and before that in 1991 there was what has become known as the Gang Lu Massacre at the University of Iowa.
Lu (above left), a 28-year-old UI PhD candidate in physics, used two handguns to shoot five to death on Nov. 1, 1991 and then committed suicide. His victims included his graduate adviser Christoph K. Goertz and fellow PhD candidate Linhua Shan.
According to the university, Lu left behind five letters explaining he was angry that his doctoral dissertation had not received an award. Victim Shan’s dissertation had been singled out for academic honors.
Lo (above center), a virtuoso violinist from Billings, Montana, received a W.E.B. DuBois minority scholarship to Simon Rock College of Bard in Massachusetts.
The 18-year-old, who would later claim he had been hearing voices, used a Soviet-era SKS assault rifle to kill two and wound four on Dec. 14, 1992. After his weapon jammed, Lo called 911 and was taken into custody.
Lo, now 32, is serving a life term. Newsweek correspondent Samantha Henig interviewed Lo in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy at MCI-Norfolk, a medium-security prison.
Breaking: South Gate Officer Awarded $1.8 Million
May 17, 2007
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury Thursday awarded three Latino police officers and a Japanese American officer $10 million in a racial discrimination suit against the city of South Gate and the city’s chief of police.
South Gate Police officer Dave Matsukiyo was awarded $1.8 million. He and three fellow officers sued the city and Police Chief Robert Todd for retaliating against them because of their support of former Police Chief Rick Lopez.
A flyer distributed by supporters of Chief Todd advised the minority officers to “look over your shoulder. You never know what can happen in this violent world in which we live.”
The four also alleged that racism toward minority civilians was rampant in the department in 2002-03. A car carrying blacks was referred to by some officers on the mostly white force as “a box of raisins,” and Latino civilians were called “Title 8s,” which refers to alien immigrants, according to trial testimony.
A. Ishmael?
May 4, 2007
One month ago today, Seung Hui Cho, the 23-year-old 1.5 generation Korean American Virginia Tech undergrad who went on a murderous campus rampage killing 32, blasted out Asian America’s top headline for the foreseeable future in hollow-point 9mm lead.
Backtracking at this late date, I only know what you know. Clearly, Cho was the first mass killer to send out his own EPK—electronic press kit—and, since the videos included in his press packet were in the QuickTime format, it’s a safe bet he created the videos, stills and documents on a Mac. The VT massacre was played out in real time on the Internet.
At first, Cho, like most other mass murderers, was described in news stories as fitting the mold of the archetypical enigmatic loner, but as time has passed, others have stepped forward with somewhat conflicting impressions of the puzzling young man.
Thirty days after the April 16 shootings, we still know little or nothing about the clearly troubled Cho or his motive(s). Initial reports that a broken romance had triggered the violence and that his initial victim was a former girlfriend have been edited out of later coverage. So far, no witnesses have been able to place Cho at the dormitory where the initial shootings took place and police haven’t been able to find a connection between Cho and the two people he killed there.
Four days after the murders, Sun Kyung Cho, the killer’s older sister, prepared and released an agonizingly apologetic statement from the Cho family through an attorney which read in part:
“No words can express our sadness that 32 innocent people lost their lives th
is week in such a terrible, senseless tragedy. We are heartbroken. Our family is so very sorry for my brother’s unspeakable actions. It is a terrible tragedy for all of us. He has made the world weep. We are humbled by this darkness. We feel hopeless, helpless and lost.”
The gunman’s parents were initially reported to have committed or attempted suicide after learning of the killings. These widespread reports were later termed untrue. They are said to be “in shock” but cooperating with authorities.
News recaps attempt to focus on Virginia’s gun control laws, Cho’s reported history of maladjustment, bizarre behavior and the failure of Virginia mental health system to respond to the clearly troubled Asian American youth who used the pseudonyms “A. Ishmael,” “Blazers5505″ and simply “?”
A MySpace profile which may have been available in the immediate aftermath of the shootings for “Ax Ishmael” has reportedly been locked or deleted as has an eBay account for “Blazers5505,” which Cho used to purchase ammunition clips for the smaller of two pistols Cho carried that day—the Walther P22—along with a set of yellow rubber ducks.
As days passed into weeks, mainstream media coverage waned from around the clock to barely a mention. Most new information has surfaced via Internet links. Did Cho’s parents recognize their son might have problems? Did they seek help? If Cho hardly ever spoke, as it has been reported by several sources, how was he able to progress through middle and high school and then onto one of his home state’s premier universities? Was he autistic?
Earlier this week, Virginia Tech held its bittersweet 2007 commencement exercises. Those killed April 16, including Cho, had been memorialized during special campus memorials in the weeks since the shootings. In their coverage of the graduation ceremonies, TV news cameramen seemed to go out of their way to show Asian members of t
he student body.
For now, MSM has stopped reporting on VT and Cho. Unlike the spontaneaity of the media’s initial coverage, all information now seems filtered. The public has been left with more questions than answers.
Who were A. Ishmael, blazers5505, Spanky, “Richard McBeef,” “Mr. Brownstone”?
