A commenter named Susan waxes eloquent a lot better than I did when I first started this line of inquiry. If Korean men feel slighted, I do apologize, as it's not my intent to vilify Korean men. However, I do think it's time to use this incident to look closer at a lot of the things in our Korean families and communities that certainly define overwhelming patterns of thought, attitudes, and behavior.
In a way, I'm past the specifics of any attempts to size up and reverse-psychoanalyze Cho. But to say he wasn't Korean or influenced by anything Korean at all is just as thick-headed and obstinate as saying he necessarily was, in light of the lack of evidence and the fact that we'll likely never know.
I know my initial reaction to all this was smug and snarky, but my overall intentions, if you really look at my subsequent posts, as I continued to mull over it while learning more and more about this incident as it progressed along with the rest of the world, should be clearer than they were two days ago. My thoughts about it are clearer as well.
Susan's reasonable yet heartfelt, damning but deft, and just plain nail-on-the-head expressions of pain, frustration, and hope as a person from the inside should be sincerely considered, and not just as more fodder for nit-picky, lickity-split flames. Even if you don't agree, please try to listen to one another.
Thanks.
