Virginia Tech: The Race Angle

"When I found out about the Virginia Tech shootings, I felt disbelief and shock--probably everything that you felt, so I won't reiterate. When I heard the shooter was Asian, I thought: What if there's retaliation? Then: I hope to God he's not Chinese," writes an Asian-American University of Illinois student in today's Daily Illini. "And then, I realized I was racist. I had bought into the structure of distrust and narrowness that prejudice totters on . . . What does it matter to the victim's families whether their loved ones were killed by someone of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean descent?"

The writer, a senior in the school's business program, then goes on to express his support for an upcoming Korean film festival on campus that rumors suggest might be canceled because of anti-Asian sentiment in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. "I hope they don't cancel the series because if they don't, I'll watch every damn showing I can make," the writer declares. --K.T.