"As details emerged about Wong's life -- recently laid off, troubled by poor language skills, unable to find a toehold in the United States -- many Vietnamese here saw their own struggles in his travails. It was a reminder, as if they needed one, that their transition from war-torn Vietnam to Binghamton has not always been easy." - LA Times

If I had a chance to catch Jiverly before he blocked the entrance of the immigration services building, this is what I would share with him.

Jiverly,

You are not alone. Your life here in America as a refugee from Vietnam is difficult, painful beyond imagination. You were forced here to America because your homeland was plagued with war. You had no choice. You didn't want to come here, you had to come here - for survival, for freedom, for an opportunity to live a better life. You got here and you were overwhelmed with challenges to integrate everything you know...into a not-so-accepting-nor-embracing American culture. You were not an immigrant, you were a refugee. People probably didn't understand that. You felt stuck. Stuck right in the middle. The dark and confusing middle between your Vietnamese and American identities. You didn't speak English well enough to be welcomed by your co-workers. Yet you didn't speak Vietnamse well enough to feel comfortable at Vietnamese social gatherings. You wondered, "Where do I stand in this world? Where do I belong? Where is my home?" You moved back and forth between the coasts. Moving was easy for you, fleeing was easy. You did it once before already. From the land of your birth. So what's another two or three more times? Dislocation, displacement. You found comfort in displacing yourself for months on end, trying your hardest to find your niche, and doing so without much support, resources, and empowerment.

Jiverly, your frustration and sense of loss are not your fault. You did not breed this culture, it bred you. Vietnamese roots watered with American-influenced values. It wasn't you who couldn't fit in. It was society that couldn't fit you in.

Jiverly, you're not alone.

Danielle

Binghamton, NY Shooting

So on Friday, I worked my first 12 hour day. The Binghamton, NY shooting kept us on our toes as “news” came out almost instantly thanks to technology… and then new “news” came out a few minutes later to correct to clarify news thanks to technology.

While some of the most immediate impact will obviously be faced by the survivors, family & friends of the victims, and family & friends of Jiverly Wong… the truth of the matter is that this event could possibly have a major impact on whole communities of people that Jiverly Wong might not ever have known nor might not have ever identified with.

Details aside, I think it’s important to start flushing out some of the implications this incident will have on multiple levels of society… our society, our community.

So really…

What does this mean for the Vietnamese community?

… the Southeast Asian community?

… the immigrant and refugee communities?

… the Asian American community?

What does this mean for America?

What does this mean in general?

Since I’m not Vietnamese, maybe one of our Vietnamese bloggers can talk about the first question. I know Jiverly Wong was Chinese, but since he was Ethnic Chinese from Viet Nam, and is cited at multiple places as being a Vietnamese immigrant, this will ultimately make a difference.

Speaking from the Southeast Asian perspective, I think there are a few things.

First, in one article, they had some criminologist profile Mr. Wong as a “pseudo-commando” gunman. Since he blocked the back exit with his car to trap his potential victims and wore armor, I guess that makes him look like he was preparing for war. Vietnamese, along with other Southeast Asian communities (and a bunch of other refugees from all over the place) that came here to the U.S. as a result of war obviously experienced and even took part in some intense warfare. However, will this kind of behavior make people think that we can no longer differentiate between war-mode and resettlement-mode?

Second, I wonder if this will help us perpetuate the already prominent ethnic funk that exists within the Southeast Asian community. Ethnic-Vietnamese blaming ethnic-Chinese from Viet Nam for giving them a bad name. Khmer, Lao, or Hmong folks blaming Vietnamese people for giving everyone a bad name… then Ethnic-Vietnamese arguing that it wasn’t them… it was the Chinese. I can picture a beautiful shout match in my mind now.

Next, what does this mean for the Asian American Community?

You know, that identity that is a bit problematic to begin with?

So first, one thing we want to avoid is apologizing. Apologizing as a community for the act of one individual. However, on the other extreme of things, I wanted to comment on Angry Asian Man’s post about the shooting. Honestly, while I don’t think we should apologize for Jiverly Wong’s acts… I don’t really understand what Angry Asian man means when he says he wants us to “help each other deal” with the economic hardships… while calling each other cowards. I don’t know. The entire post looks a lot like pulling-yourself-up-by-your-boot-straps-ish and has nothing to do with helping each other deal with the economic crisis. It reminds me a little bit about those facebook groups that were somewhere along the lines of “Koreans against Seung-Hui Cho” or whatever. Isn’t there something in the middle between standing in solidarity and apologizing versus completely ostracizing someone?

To be very honest, we were tipped off on this issue from a Korean American organization who heard because it was happening at an immigration services center. Once they found out that the person might be Vietnamese, they called us so that we wouldn’t have to go through the same kind of backlash they went through with the Virginia Tech shootings. The New York Times characterized this as the “nation’s worst killings since the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech.” Thanks. So now we have crazy killing Koreans and crazy killing Vietnamese people as well.

In addition to the Asian American Community… I think something can be said about what this means for the entire Immigrant and Refugee Communities in general as well.

First, although I was in Thailand during the VT shooting… I remember there being a huge hype about it. A lot more people were calling him crazy… A lot more people were calling all Koreans crazy… And a lot more people calling all Asian and immigrants crazy. Now, I’m not complaining about now having to deal with too much media buzz about this… but really.

Why are people not as quick to judge or to criticize?

Is it because they learned their lessons from VT? Probably not. I mean, if they did… kudos to them… but really? REALLY?

Is it because they sympathize with him and the economic crisis? Probably not. I mean, the VT shooter definitely had some issues and no one sympathized with him.

Or… is it because this is just another case of an immigrant shooting up other immigrants? DING DING DING. Call me a pessimist… but seriously. In the VT shootings, the bougie parents of the bougie students who went to the bougie school of course were outraged… which made mainstream American outraged. However, I think while some folks are trying to compare this to the VT Shootings, I think this is more comparable to violence that occurs in the urban and inner cities. It’s like that saying someone (I think it was Maurice) said: When white people jump on cars… it call it the free speech movement. When black folks jump on cars… they call it a riot.

Besides the lack of media hype around this… I’m also worried about the implications this might have on the immigrant and refugee communities in terms of policy. First, with the immigrant community. Since he came to the U.S. in the 1990s… I’m guessing it was through family reunification… which is a huge part of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Second, if he was a refugee, I wonder if folks will be using this as a way to restrict refugee admission levels. Lastly, closer to the Southeast Asian and Vietnamese communities… maybe folks will start to think that signing repatriation was a great idea.

While most Americans, white Americans, would love to make this a Vietnamese thing, a Southeast Asian thing, an Asian thing, or an immigrant and refugee thing… this issue also highlights many of the broader problems in American society.

The first that really attracts me is the concept of being American. Jiverly was a naturalized citizen. He paid that hundreds of dollars, passed that horrid U.S. history test, and raise his right hand and took an oath to be an American. However, what did America and other Americans do in turn? Did they welcome him and his big dreams with open arms? Did they say, “Jiverly, we’re glad that you’re not American just like us.” No. Not exactly. Well, not really at all. They made fun of his speaking skills. They made things so bad that he hated America. Now, what does being American really mean? How does American live up to the idea that this country is a nation of immigrants… a multi-ethnic nation?

On a less theoretical level… many articles have cited that Jiverly was a gun enthusiast. What does this mean about our nation’s gun laws?

In addition, of course, ultimately, this along with the string of shootings in the U.S. in the past month… it comes down to the economy. However, is the economy just becoming the excuse for everything nowadays? I think there might be something to be said about the economy and mounting frustrations due to unemployment and such… but I also think there are bigger problems at work here as well.

I guess all in all… this is something that affects everyone in the U.S…. but maybe since the people it affects the most are amongst the most silent, there isn’t going to be too much buzz, negative or positive, about Jivery Wong.