For Immediate Release:

April 18, 2007

Contacts:
Marie Choi -201-563-4866
Theresa Tran - 248-821-7906
Dennis Chin - 609-954-2111

NAASCon Responds to Virginia Tech Shootings.

The National Asian American Student Conference (NAASCon), an organization which aims to serve as a forum for APA student activists to compile resources, coordinate campaigns, and build community around shared values of social and economic justice, human rights, and collective decision-making, expresses its deepest condolences to those affected by the tragic events at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

In the wake of these horrific shootings, NAASCon hopes that college students across the nation, regardless of race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, and/or other identities, are able to build solidarity with one another for collective healing. NAASCon urges the community at-large to bridge their different experiences to create a dialogue that fosters understanding, compassion, and growth.

"We are horrified at the events that have occurred at Virginia Tech but are hopeful that we can guide the discourse towards more positive and productive dialogue," says Marie Choi, Chair of NAASCon.

NAASCon would like to take this opportunity now to urge local media, students, educators, and community leaders to be conscientious of how this situation is being framed and to be critical of how stories are presented to the public. Though we sincerely hope that this isolated incident does not generate further violence and misunderstanding, NAASCon cautions the community to be vigilant of potential retailation, driven by racial tensions. As the aftermath of 9/11 demonstrates, racially motivated hate crimes and hostile speech is a lived reality that continues to this day.

"Despite his legal citizenship status, and the fact that he is by all accounts American in upbringing, Cho Seung-Hui's racial identity marks Asian Americans as inextricably connected to this tragedy. We have to be aware of the implications of this connection and work to see this tragedy as a non-racial issue, but rather a universal issue that connects Cho Seung-Hai to all students," says Theresa Tran, Constituency Outreach Chair of NAASCon.

As more details of the tragedy develop, NAASCon will continue to lend itself as a resource and ally for the Virginia Tech students and community at-large.