A little late reporting this, but last week three Korean Americans were discovered stabbed to death in their Tenafly, NJ home. The brutality of the crime has shocked many in the quiet, suburban, upper middle class neighborhood (median household income $91k). Choi Kang-Hyuk was apprehended in Los Angeles later in the week and is the chief suspect in the murders. His relationship with the murdered is unclear except that he was caught with what appears to be $14k of the $30k in cash that was missing from the home.
The whole incident has brought unwanted attention to the Korean American community, which is seen by some New Jersey residents as a bit insular. Some KorAms are having another “Cho Seung-Hui” moment. Per an article in today’s Associated Press:
As with the massacre at Virginia Tech — carried out by a Korean student — reaction among Koreans to the Tenafly killings has exposed a community that is of two minds about its place in American society.
While younger Koreans say the killings could have happened anywhere, some older Koreans feel shame that their community was involved.
“We have different opinions,” said longtime Tenafly resident Sunjoo Kim, 48. “Myself and my sister grew up here — we don’t look at these killings like a Korean thing — it could happen to anyone in any town.
“But first-generation Koreans are taking it very personally, they feel very ashamed that it was Korean people involved,” she said.
Paul Lee, a board of education member in Palisades Park — a town near Tenafly which, at just one square mile in size, claims to be the most densely populated Korean municipality in the United States — said the divergent views between older Korean immigrants and younger ones came to light in recent disagreements over whether to hold a community meeting at a Korean church to discuss the Tenafly killings.
“It’s like Virginia Tech — why are we doing something to apologize for the fact that he (the suspect) was Korean?” said Lee, who is Korean.
(Emphasis mine)
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes, it’s a Virginia Tech…They are afraid about a backlash that won’t happen.
Self loathing in New Jersey…… or denial that the Han could ever loose control of their Chi……
Sharpen the pitchforks! Light the torches!
2 reasons for the freakout when things like this happens:
Loss of face- it ruins the myth that Koreans are more moral and “pure hearted”.
Fear of backlash- Koreans, in their absolute love of portraying themselves as victims of the world and history, are convinced that the world is out to get them and are very afraid that things like this will send the perceived ready and waiting mob after them.
Both reasons are complete bullshit and like one writer asked after Virginia Tech “When will these arrogant Koreans get over themselves?”.
Its not V-Tech, this is Korean on Korean crime. Something that happens all the time in Korean communities. V-tech was a deranged Korean killing lots of innocent mostly non Koreans.
Korean communities may not want the attention, but perhaps for other reasons. Perhaps if American authorities shined the light on the illegal activities and tax evastion that seems to be rampant, it might hurt the individual members of the community.
Sure. blame the victims. what are you guys, al qaeda plants or something?
sometimes greedy people kill for money. pointing out the physical characteristics of the murderer is non-sequitor in a world where thousands of people every day are killed for their possessions…
Better to focus on spreading peace and love than personnally checking which of the pooh-throwing monkeys possesses the worst-smelling derrière…
I think Benicio is on to something. The Korean-Americans who react like that must be ones who think like baduk, i.e., they (Korean-Americans) are some sort of perfect, moral, superior folk who are here to save the rest of us. Those Korean-Americans who don’t think that way, as well as _all_ non-Koreans, won’t have that reaction.
In the area, none of the reporting I’ve seen on this crime have played up the Korean angle at all, even when a Korean was arrested for the murders. Instead, it was more like, “how could this happen here?” and, “did the victims know the killer?” Certainly, no voices are calling for Koreans to apologize and no one is saying that Koreans are prone to murder, etc.
In fact, many non-Koreans are very sympathetic when Korean-Americans are murdered, as you can witness in the recent media coverage of the murder of Kyung-sook Woo in Brooklyn a couple of weeks ago.
#3 Benicio74
You might also mention that Koreans are pretty quick to fault the entire country of a (non-Korean) perp. So, they naturally think that others would do the same to them.
And yes, I see the irony in generalizing about Koreans’ tendency to generalize.
black and hispanic americans took so much from korean americans in LA during the la riot because a black man got beat up by bunch of policeman. so u never know…
7. Thats why you dont treat your customers like crap, you never know when a riot will break out, just kidding. But you sayting that is like saying when riots would break out in Ancient Rome and some jewish merchants shops were burnt down by Roman citizens, it was because they were owned by Jews. its simply not
true, was because it was a riot, plain and simple. Same goes for LA.
7. Thats why you dont treat your customers like crap, you never know when a riot will break out, just kidding. But you sayting that is like saying when riots would break out in Ancient Rome and some jewish merchants shops were burnt down by Roman citizens, it was because they were owned by Jews. its simply not
true, was because it was a riot, plain and simple. Same goes for LA.
“We have different opinions,” said longtime Tenafly resident Sunjoo Kim, 48. “Myself and my sister grew up here — we don’t look at these killings like a Korean thing — it could happen to anyone in any town.
“But first-generation Koreans are taking it very personally, they feel very ashamed that it was Korean people involved,” she said.
I think she has it backwards. The first generation are not taking it
personally, the immigrants are taking it personally.
the Koreans in LA treated those people the way they demonstrated to be treated.
steal, threat, shoot,
you won’t be treated well.
you’ll be treated like you were at a cheap liquor store.
some parts of the US inner cities don’t even have Koreans to provide the service of overcharging on simple items like groceries and booze, and cigarettes, or laundering.
i think I’ve seen some. Those are truly awful-er hoods. I think I saw brave Latinos stepping in those spots.
white people ran away from inner city LA. white people run away from black people. Universal occurrence. US, South Africa, etc.
by the way, based on my experiences, black men have the largest flaccid penises, beating out other races by a long shot.
if dong size was so hot among women of all races, how come black men are consistently in the lowest SEStatus of all men?
as for this event, if things like that could happen in Fullerton, it can happen in Tenafly. Sunny Hills High School is famous for students murdering students. Look into it. It’s a great academic public high school, by the way, because there are barely any non-Asian minorities.
I admit, too, Koreans went to Tenafly, because they were running away from other races from say, Woodside, or Flushing.
Koreans watched the white man, and did exactly what the white man did, once they got rich enough to do it.
I’d say, though the white folk in the village usually suspect minority races in the village murdering each other lowers the property value, invites gangs, makes the village unsafe, and puts their children at danger,…
thus, they should make all street signs invisible at night, cut off public bus stops, pass a law to make taxi services illegal from the train stop to the town, after dark, raise rent, make renting Chinese style illegal, and pass some law requiring English usage. The English thing usually hits the Hispanics, though. But, they’ll give it a shot at those Koreans, too.
You never know.
Welcome to suburbia. Don’t commit a crime, minorities…
white man’s already loading up on shot-gun ammo inside his house. If the town demographics hits 50% Korean, he’s out of there…like he was out of Palisades Park.
“by the way, based on my experiences, black men have the largest flaccid penises, beating out other races by a long shot.”
I am almost afraid to ask what those experiences are…
@#12 bumfromkorea:
Are wjk and baduk drinking the same off-brand cola, or what? Madder than hatters, I tells ya.
Might as well bring back pawi.
well,
1. koreans weren’t the only ones fearing backlash. it wasn’t just a korean thing.
2. the image of one’s people is important to lots of different peoples in america and elsewhere. again, not just a korean thing.
i however do think koreans should learn to stop being so insecure. if their response is conditioned by all the haters in the world, they ought to start transcending that and begin to learn that there are all sorts of heinous crimes committed everyday by all kinds of sick and twisted individuals all over the world, ie that moral idiocy, too, isn’t just a korean thing.
btw, note the irony. koreans can’t even participate in natural insecurities without getting fucked in the ass by pop-critic tard-n-drivel aimed specifically at them. everything becomes a “koreans are so irrational” moment.
“It’s like Virginia Tech — why are we doing something to apologize for the fact that he (the suspect) was Korean?” said Lee, who is Korean.
I feel a sense of irony. Except in this case, some Koreans are merely fearing a backlash from the media or Americans. In, Korea the media has already gone apeshit because a few whiteys are toking the reefer or teaching without a degree….so naturally they should be suspect of all foreigners are put into place draconian immigration policies.
@#13: WJK. WHAT THE HELL MAN? You were all over the map on that one. How does Korean on Korean violence in New Jersey relate in any way, shape, or form to flacid penis size?
Your writings are a roadmap to madness. I take them as a cautionary tale of how NOT to think.
- Private cell phone “business”
- Partner who makes his living gambling in Vegas.
- Small amount of cocaine and weed found at the crime scene
This one has Asian/Korean mob written all over it. Give me a break…you expect us to believe that Kim was just an “innocent entrepreneur” who was a victim of psychotically imbalanced guy? Puhlease..the warning signs are so obvious I can’t believe the media is trying to paint this off as something which was so “shockingly unexpected.”
It’s just that the Koreans are just as good as the Mafia at keeping up a good false front. Sure, it seems like a legitimate business up front…but please, if the players in this episode were Italian, anyone who claims that this crime was off color or so unexpected would be deemed a fool. It was a bomb waiting to go off.
“The Korean-Americans who react like that must be ones who think like baduk, i.e., they (Korean-Americans) are some sort of perfect, moral, superior folk who are here to save the rest of us. Those Korean-Americans who don’t think that way, as well as _all_ non-Koreans, won’t have that reaction.”
I think you are reading too much into it. In this particular case, I can’t speak for Koreans in Korea, however for Koreans in America, I don’t think anyone is saying we are just sooooo much more superior to everyone else. Korean Americans (generally from a 1st generation and a little bit for the second) are from a confucian mindset. Confucians think that perfection is possible with enough effort. Americans from a Christian mindset come with the idea that to error is human. Moral? Well, I think most people are moral to some degree. More moral then everyone else? I just don’t see the average Korean American saying, “yeah I’m better then anyone else.” Remember, Koreans in America came here by their free choice, so most have made a decision that America has something that is superior such as superior schools, government, economy, etc. So how can they think they are better then everyone else?
Now, could they think they are better then other Americans, such as Blacks and Hispanics? Maybe? But then again, so do a lot of whites. Yes, it’s politically incorrect, but in many cases, the whole illegal immigration debate is a thinly veiled racial debate. Let’s not even pretend it’s not so.
If what Koreans saw were mostly Baldwin Hills Blacks (Baldwin Hills being a big middle class Black neighborhood here in LA)? In that case, the average KorAm attitude to Blacks would probably be very different. What they first ran across, unfortunately, were inner city blacks because Koreans bought stores located in poorer neighborhoods. If that’s your first exposure, then your first thoughts on a particular race will not initially be positive.
Koreans being rude to inner city customers? Well, inner city residents complained about this regarding Jewish store owners and burned their stores during the Watts Riots. The Jews rebuilt and sold their stores to Koreans. The Koreans lost these stories during the LA Riots. Those that rebuilt are now selling their stores to Arabs. There is now the same friction between Arabs and poor black inner city customers. Maybe it’s not a race thing? Maybe it’s just had to do business in the inner city?
I meant “Maybe it’s just HARD to do business in the inner city.”
People with limited insight imagine that other people are of the same mind or else completely different. They can’t handle an inbetween.
I’m Korean, but I dont have an American citizenship.
I find Korean-Americans in general weird. They weren’t raised right, they weren’t raised at all. Its like their parents came to America tried to make money and forgot to teach their kids basic things about life.
@21, it has shit to do with Confucian. These retarded parents repressed their children to an unbelievable degree. It has nothing to do with Korean culture, Confucian or anything in that nature.
This is racist, but Blacks are dumb in general. Call me a racist, I’m just saying what everyone in America isn’t saying.
On my campus I see probably 5 blacks in any given year.
@25
Hmm…OK. It’s not really surprising though to hear that coming from you. Thanks for reading my mind though because I don’t say that “blacks are stupid.” Obviously, you can read the minds of every single American who does not subscribe to your racist beliefs about blacks and automatically figure out that actually, they are thinking the same thing as you.
stacked,
You clearly don’t know much about confucianism (or more correctly in Korea’s case neo-confucianism).
But I do agree with you that the second generation is a bit weird and their parents spend way too much time in their small businesses and not actually raising the kids.
I really think that there should be some shame involved here. 1st gens have been working their way to building a good name for the Korean Community. They were soft-spoken, curteous and hardworking.. CRIMES like this.. just make us look bad…. worse than others?.. NO.. but it does throw some serious stains on a relatively clean reputation.
hey, wasn’t the V-tech Shooter a Choi, too? what a coincidence
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