The Asian American Journalists Association have a point. They have asked journalists and bloggers to stop stressing that Cho Seung-Hui, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech massacre, was Asian:
“Like the rest of the nation, we at the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) are stunned at the news of the shooting at Virginia Tech. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families and friends as they cope with this horrific incident.’
“As coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting continues to unfold, AAJA urges all media to avoid using racial identifiers unless there is a compelling or germane reason. There is no evidence at this early point that the race or ethnicity of the suspected gunman has anything to do with the incident, and to include such mention serves only to unfairly portray an entire people.”
Founded in 1981, the AAJA represents approximately 2,000 reporters, editors, photographers and executives.
There are, incidentally, around 100,000 foreign South Korean students in the US, making them the largest foreign student group in the country, so – hopefully – Cho Seung-Hui was just one (very) bad apple among them.