I Just Assumed The VT Shooter Was A Young White Male

[KittyWampus]

Yes, I remember the words of Felix Unger "When you assume...." and please excuse these ramblings but here's a perfect example of how we may have an underlying bias without realising it.

I automatically envisioned the shooter being an 18 year old white guy.

That day, I didn't log onto the internet until late afternoon and found out about the Virginia Tech shooting here on DU. It didn't seem odd to figure on the perpetrator being a young white guy. Although it was definitely a preconceived notion in my own head.

So then I didn't log on or listen to news til quite a bit later because the sadness was too great, skipped the Media's labeling of Cho as "Asian" and ultimately saw him reported as Korean.

Honestly, it was a bit of a shock to me.

Now, after reading a thread about South Koreans expressing collective shame at the US Embassy, I can't help but wonder if ANY mediawhores have mentioned that Cho doesn't fit the school-shooter mold as it's been played out here in America.

What I mean is, has any Mediawhore reported the fact that Cho is NOT a white male as almost all other school shooters have been?

Because you KNOW if the vast majority of school shooters had been "Black" or "Asian", Jamaican or Korean... that would not only be considered a "trend". The Media would definitely talk about that phenomena.

Anyway, that was my admission of bias. I jumped to a conclusion based on past school shooting and was proved wrong in my assumption.

When you assume, you make an "ass" out of "u" and "me".

[uppityperson]

1. Many. He sent video to MSM, been played much.

Interesting when our biases rise up and strike us, isn't it? MSM played video, showed many pictures by the next day.

[aikoaiko]

2. As a white guy, I don't take any offense.

You followed the statistics. In general, I don't mind when people assume things based on available info.

[progdonkey]

3. well, this rampage was much different from other school shootings...

I think even including this with the other "school shootings" is comparing apples to oranges, as the fact that it occurred at a college really didn't have anything to do with the actual causes of the crime. He was going to explode in a rage at some point. If he hadn't been in college, he probably would've been one of those workplace shooters, or like the Capitol shooter, thinking the government's trying to steal his thoughts, etc.

Or, to put it another way, the issue at the core of this tragedy isn't about fostering a school environment free of bullying, etc., as it would be with other school shootings, but about how to best treat severely mentally disturbed people, be they students or members of the general public.

[stray cat]

4. You must have missed the one in Iowa City

The only major constant in these mass shootings has really been male....

[phaseolus]

5. Funny how this works

I pictured a white kid, too -- overweight, wears camouflage every day, confederate flag stickers on a ratty old F-150. I was wrong.

It's like the Murrah Federal Building bombing -- everyone assumed it was a middle-easterner, because in the popular imagination those are the people who blow things up. I watched "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher" that night, before any news about the bomber had been released. The filmmaker John Waters was the only one I saw in any of the media coverage who thought the bomber might have been home-grown. He was certain of it, and turned out to be right.