Anti-Asian Hate Was One of Killer Elliot Rodger’s Motivations

While I had read that misogyny and a sense of entitlement were motivations of Elliot Rodger, the man who killed six people and then himself near Santa Barbara, I didn’t realize that anti-Asian hate was another one until I saw this post from the BigWOWO.  Rodger stabbed three Asians, two of whom were his roommates.  His mother was Asian, but he seemed to despise full-blooded Asians, especially when he saw Asian males were talking to white females.  In a way, this case seems to be one of life imitating art.  The LA Times has highlighted excerpts from his manifesto that applies to his hate.

On killing his Asian roommates:

The first people I would have to kill are my two housemates, to secure the entire apartment for myself as my personal torture and killing chamber.

On Asian males with white females:

I soon became frustrated that no one was paying any attention to me, particularly the girls. I saw girls talking to other guys who looked like obnoxious slobs, but none of them showed any interest in me. As my frustration grew, so did my anger. I came across this Asian guy who was talking to a white girl.

The sight of that filled me with rage. I always felt as if white girls thought less of me because I was half-Asian, but then I see this white girl at the party talking to a full-blooded Asian. I never had that kind of attention from a white girl! And white girls are the only girls I’m attracted to, especially the blondes.

How could an ugly Asian attract the attention of a white girl, while a beautiful Eurasian like myself never had any attention from them? I thought with rage.

Rodger’s murderous rampage chillingly hits close to home.  A friend of mine had a son who had come home over that weekend from UC Santa Barbara.   Number One Son was interested in visiting there to look at the college.  Two of the victims were Asian from San Jose (where I live), and another one was an Asian from Fremont (where I used to live).

Oddly enough, Rodger’s hate for Asians has parallels to Koji Sakai’s movie Chink.  In that story, a frustrated man of Asian descent despises his Asian background and takes it out his anger in a murderous fashion on Asians.   Oscar Wilde said that Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life. With Rodger,  that has tragically proven to be the case.