<p>I'm going to go for it. I am very curious about this issue, and perhaps somebody can enlighten me. I was contemplating putting this on the Virginia Tech board, but decided against it. I was also surprised (but then again, I guess I wasn't) that I couldn't find anything on there mentioning these incidents.</p>
<p>A friend of mine had mentioned in passing that a student at Virginia Tech had been murdered last month in a cafe. I didn't believe her until I found a bunch of articles describing the incident--> Virginia</a> Tech Murder Suspect in Custody. I couldn't find any articles that listed why this man had committed this crime, so maybe somebody else knows.</p>
<p>At the risk of making generalizations, I'm going to point out that the suspect in this horrendous attack was a Chinese international student. The previous attacker of the shooting rampage in 2007 was a South Korean permanent resident of the United States. Considering that the school is only 8% asian/pacific islander and 75% white (according to College Board), it seems like these similarities could be more than a coincidence.</p>
<p>My question: how did these two horrible attacks occur in a row? Is this an issue of Virginia Tech not being able to handle the psychological well-being of their students, or asian students in America feeling isolated and depressed within certain communities?</p>
<p>I suppose what interests me the most is this cultural dilemma in regards to finding psychological help. I was talking with my roommate, who is Chinese, and she explained to me that within the asian culture (I'm sure this applies to other cultures, too) it's unheard of to seek attention for psychological problems. People are expected to deal with their own issues, and only crazy people attend therapy. Two articles that delve further into this matter are Asian-Americans</a> Less Likely Than Others To Seek Treatment For Mental Health Illnesses, Study Finds and Asian</a> Americans Less Likely to Seek Help - NAM. This is very different from the Western culture, where society is more focused on improving each other's self-esteem.</p>
<p>So how can we take care of the mental health of students who don't seek help for their mental health? I almost feel that rigorous universities should require their students to receive annual mental evaluations.</p>
<p>Feel free to also tell me that I'm completely off-base and am making conclusions without valid evidence.</p>
<p>I happen to go to VT, and while its sad that these murders have occured, I do not think it is the fault of the University. Requiring mental health exams for all students costs money, money that state legislatures do not have. And to poke another hole in your argument, while two murderers at VT were of asian descent, VT is not the only school with asian students. So why hasn't this happened elsewhere? These were two isolated freak incidents from people that obviously needed help, but you cannot catch them all before they do something egregious, and you never will be able to. And its not like the attacks occured in a row, they occured within a few years, not weeks or days. Asians aren't the only race to have a minority of people with mental health problems that commit horrible acts, you can say the same for any race. People who need mental help often do not seek it, and unless somebody really notices, nothing will get done.</p>
<p>I don't think it's Vtech's fault either - some people have mental problems, you can't blame the college for it. I go to NYU and a couple years ago, we had 2 very publicizied suicides in 1 month (jumped off top floor of library into lobby - tons of people saw it and I hear it was just horrible). But you can't blame the college for that.</p>
<p>And don't put the blame on Asians - the reason they've earned that "model minority" status is because their crime rate is pretty low, lower than whites/blacks/hispanics, I would guess.</p>
<p>I've seen a couple email discussions about this, and the important thing that other students mentioned was that this is most likely not the only murder that occurred recently at a college. Murders occur all the time, but they're relatively rare in general. The only reason that this murder was getting more media attention than the other nameless murders is that this happened at VT and the murderer was Asian, and these bear similarities to the VT shooting.</p>
<p>This one was personal; they knew eachother well enough that one of them was the other's emergency contact. There isn't really anything VT can do about this stuff, or anyone else for that matter. And remember that "two in a row" is over three years time, not exactly a crime spree.</p>
<p>^ Blacks commit more crimes (in proportion to the number of black americans) because more of them live in poverty, and poor people are more likely to commit crimes - so it's socioeconomic. </p>
<p>Most suicide bombers are Muslim because terrorists like to think they are "martyrs" who will be rewarded for killing the "enemy", even though in their holy book it clearly says killing is forbidden unless it's in defense. </p>
<p>As for Jews being rich......uh it's a conspiracy :D (just kidding please don't get offended!)</p>
<p>I think I saw some research suggesting that the Jewish religion's focus on introspection and abstract reasoning rather than simple obedience facilitates success in business and a focus on higher education (leading to more money).</p>
<p>I guess I overreacted when I read the articles, and my post was the result of that. I also kind of have a guilty pleasure of watching Law and Order SVU, my favorite character is the psychologist who always analyzes the behavior of suspects/victims. :) The nature of this crime interests me in the sense that I can't imagine a possible motive or reason for it being committed (does anybody know?), and the media isn't giving any answers. But maybe that's a good thing, the media tends to blow things out of proportion.</p>
<p>I was talking to another student who said she visited VT, and when she asked about the crime, a lot of students hadn't even heard that it had happened. Either it really wasn't that big of a deal, or it was covered up well. Who knows.</p>
<p>kindaslick said:
[quote]
So why hasn't this happened elsewhere?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Exactly, why hasn't this happened elsewhere? Why just at VT? Of course, I can't claim to have an understanding in this matter because I don't go to VT and I'm Russian, not asian.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why do so many Black people commit crimes? Why are most suicide bombers Muslim? Why do Jews have so much money?</p>
<p>These are questions the world will never know.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not necessarily. There have been plenty of studies that have explored these concepts and uncovered the truths behind these questions. I think it's somewhat careless to merely dismiss these social predicaments as merely being reality when it's possible to find out why.</p>
<p>I don't like it when people clump Asians in one big, yellow-skinned slanty-eyed group. Saying Korean crime + Chinese crime + Vtech = OMG conspiracy is like saying both cities in Africa and predominantly African American cities are poor because there is something innately wrong with Africans.</p>
<p>^ i second that. like i said before (which no one paid attention to), murders happen all the time in random places. This one is only being analyzed is because of the coincidence of being committed by an Asian individual at VT.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I don't like it when people clump Asians in one big, yellow-skinned slanty-eyed group
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Nobody called certain races by any names, you yourself brought up these negative stereotypes. I didn't think that my question about asian-american integration within the American society had anything to do with stereotypes. I apologize if my post seemed racist to you, but I also don't like it when people avoid bringing up questions because they're too afraid of being politically incorrect. You don't have to like what I say, but please don't put words into my mouth, or try to associate negative ideas with what I perceive might possibly be a question relating to cultural psychology.</p>