Week 5

Anna De Villa
A03

Darrell Hamamoto’s piece “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence” is a thought provoking article about how race and militarization of the American society has affected several famous murderers. He points out the histories of different killer in recent history, their own backgrounds, and the history of their victims. I found these cases quite chilling, especially since many victims were people like myself, young, female, and Asian. Many of the Asian victims in these crimes are chosen for their race and because of the killers’ past history. I found it interesting how some of these notorious killers were also gun enthusiasts and veterans with a history of enjoying war. Their behavior during the Vietnam war was an indicator of how they viewed other races, and the fact that guns are so accessible in the United States, along with America’s own glorification of gun ownership, made them feel entitled to reliving the thrill of killing others. Hamamoto also brings up that these murderers were mostly white men, who probably felt their own privilege very strongly. Because of this, I personally also think that a part of their reason for murder is the “yellow fever” idea of fetishizing Asian women. We are often painted as soft-spoken and submissive, which probably made these men in the article feel like they were allowed to kill these people. They were looking at these women just as objects with certain traits instead of as people.
The most horrifying murders were those of Ricardo Ramirez. I can not imagine being able to kill someone with a family then going on to rape and kill their wife. It is also shocking how this kind of mentality of absolutely loathing Asians stemmed from just war stories from his older brother.

Question: Would America have the same amount of diversity if the United States did not participate in colonialism or war?

References:
Boggs, C. (2003). Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire. New York, New York: Routledge.
Danzinger. (2006). Retrieved from https://civilianmilitaryintelligencegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/coll-damage-cartoon.jpg.