17 Apr 2007 0643H

VT massacre underscores need for Asian American student services; Vote for Naisy

Angry Asian Man has the low-down on the shooter, who is now confirmed as an Asian student who lived in one of the dorms. I’m puzzled mostly about what pushed the guy over the edge. There will still be the usual cycle of soulsearching, blame, anger, so on. But as details about the identity of the killer came to light, I recalled the words of Asian American psychologist Stanley Sue, who told us, in my other life as an Asian American Studies practitioner, that when Asian Americans with mental illness begin to act out, their illness is often quite advanced, and it’s usually better to treat them much earlier. But because college and university administrators still embrace the model minority myth that Asian Americans have no problems, there are often no appropriate services for their psychological needs, which have even been sometimes dismissed by non-Asian American providers. And yet every indication we have is that Asian American mental health is entirely underserved. I don’t want to discount the enormous suffering caused by this horrific mass murder, but this incident, like the local murder of a north side resident, by her mentally ill sister-in-law, only serves to underscore the importance of Asian American Studies and Asian American mental health services. Perhaps he would still have been one of the many, many students who would have fallen through the cracks, but, one still wonders. Maybe we always will, until the next time.

Today, you can punch 102 and vote for Naisy in the 50th Ward. Here I was about to condemn Chicagoist for its fluffiness, how I hate how they refer to themselves in the third person, and then they came forward with a story of how Bernie Stone failed to take leadership on a giant Arabic peace sign on the mosque near the Devon Ave strip. That part of the ward is heavily, famously South Asian, and I think as a city we embrace it as a vital sign of the diversity in our city. Naisy’s diversity training experience and her experience as the city’s Asian American community liaison would have really, really helped make the bridge to disgruntled Chicago Fire Department personnel who, uh, may harbor an indiscriminate grudge against Muslims. Hope it doesn’t influence their job behavior. . . As a aside, have you ever noticed that the greeting “peace be with you” in Arabic (as-salamu alaykum) and Hebrew (shalom aleichem) are so very nearly the same, as is the affirmation amen?

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