The Korean community joins America in mourning the deaths of 32 students and teachers at the Blacksburg campus. But activists see the identification of Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui as shaded to emphasize that he was South Korean — as if his 15 years living in the United States didn't count — and the rush to describe him by race, not by his physical features the way a white suspect might have been.

"When I heard that the suspect was Asian, I was just like, I know what's going to happen," said Tamara Nopper, a Korean-American advocate who teaches courses on race at Temple University in Philadelphia. "For a while, all they had was 'It's an Asian man, it's an Asian man."'

Early news reports identified Cho, 23, as Asian, and later, when his identity was learned, South Korean.

COMMUNITY HELD 'ACCOUNTABLE'

Nopper echoed a common sentiment among minorities: If one member of the group commits a crime, America holds the entire community accountable.

"When Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City building, and when George Bush sends bombs to Iraq ... you don't see white people feeling the need to have to apologize," Nopper said. "People of color are often seen as having some sort of connection to each other. ... White people don't have that burden."

References to Cho's race diminished after Tuesday. But for some Asian-Americans, the damage was done.

At Facebook.com, a group called "I'm Korean and Have a Gun, Don't Be Scared," had 81 members. At Asian-aimed social sites like Yellowworld.org, many questioned whether a white shooter's race would have factored.

C.N. Le, director of Asian and Asian-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, questioned whether even a black suspect would have been handled similarly.

He pointed to black leaders who challenge negative media portrayals of that community, and triggered CBS to fire radio host Don Imus this month following racial comments against black basketball players.

"Asian-Americans don't have that kind of political clout on a national level — we don't have a version of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton," Le said.

ASIAN GROUPS URGE CAUTION ON STEREOTYPES

Janice Lee, deputy executive director of the Asian-American Journalists Association, issued a media advisory against race-heavy references to Cho. She also cautioned against common stereotypes creeping into media coverage.

"Some of it was 'Oh, there must have been cultural pressures, there must have been language fluency barriers' — we didn't know all of that," she said. "People drew such immediate connections."

In Los Angeles this week, activist Eun-Sook Lee tallied phone calls to her group, the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium. Some sought comment; a caller to one of the group's community centers swore and yelled.