To harp some more about the role of Asians in North Americans in society: I am surprised at myself, and society in general, at how shocking it is that some yellow dude went and shot a whole bunch of people; mainly because it's not -culturally- expected. Generally, we're a pretty invisible lot; we serve as the 'model minority': we work hard, keep our heads low and disappear, pretty much.
The other, more shocking, though not surprising, thing, is how self-absorbed and ethnocentric we are as North Americans. Vigils, candlelight services, television memorials, large murals for people to write their feelings on, loads of flowers and teddy bears - all for 32 unfortunate people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sure, outpouring of collective grief in mourning is important for healing, but what of the hundreds of children who die because of AIDS? The millions who live in slavery? The thousands who die of preventable causes; famine, unclean water, natural disasters, poverty? What of the 23 Christian Iraqis who were selectively shot, after being pulled from a bus, yesterday in Bagdhad? What of the renewed fighting in Mogadishu, causing hundreds to flee the city into who knows what kind of refugee limbo and leaving over 100 dead? What of Hussein Celil, sentenced to life in a Chinese prison? Why do we not mourn these, also dearly loved, also dearly missed? Why do we wallow in our own self-absorption, thinking that the most terrible things happen to -us-, when, in fact, they don't, and, even more arrogantly, expect the world to mourn deeply with us?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I had some similar thoughts - I turned on the news last Monday and was shocked (and frightened, since my nephew is a student there) by this news...was glued to the TV for a couple of hours (until I realized that they were going to keep showing the same video feed every 15 minutes) and was just so sad that this had happened (which we should be). But then I realized that I don't even think twice when, for example, the next day 2 suicide bombers in Baghdad take out 200 people who were just going about their daily food shopping. Surely those 200 had families and friends who cared about them, too. I think it comes down to the surprise/anger/disappointment that you yourself notice when you found out the shooter was an Asian - we just don't expect Asians to do deeds like this, and we don't expect it to happen in Western cities, whereas it has become (in our minds at least) a natural occurrence in other parts of the world. We don't realize how blessed we are to live in places where this is a rare occurrence.
Yes, but I still think the arrogance that we have in the West, that we assume that since we were privileged enough to be born here/brought here, that those types of things shouldn't happen to us, only to those other people...
Post a Comment