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It’s funny you mentioned you felt a special connection to the family. My mother looked a bit teary-eyed when she told me about the news of his death. It may be because he’s Asian like us or it could be because he just looks like one of the nicest people you could ever meet.
I feel so sad for his family and his beautiful kids. -
Though sad, at least the goal he set out to complete was accomplish which was to save his family. Someone interviewed reported that his daughters will know that he died trying to save their lives.
RIP
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Youre’ not alone, DesiGyrl- I had a same reaction when I heard. I had really been hoping they’d find him alive, it’s tragic that his wife and little girls will have to grow up with the memory of him as a substitute to the man himself. But he was greatly loved and admired within the tech community, so I know they’ll have lots of people surrounding them with fond memories of their father/husband. They’re in my prayers these days.
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I’ve been following the Kim family story in the news. I was hoping for a happy ending but alas, it is not to be. Kati and kids are in my prayers.
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Besides the fact that the story itself is very compelling, I have to admit that I felt a little extra connection because of the “interracial family” thing too.
I think most people relate to people like themselves and since there are not many positive portrayals of interracial relationships in mass media, it is easy for me to see the special connecttion factor.
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Does the interracial aspect of this tragedy really make it more compelling, poignant?
I’ve been reading here long enough to know that your hearts are big, and you feel deeply for all of humanity, so I’ll accept that it simply feels close to home, yet in a very public way.
I only heard this yesterday morning on NPR, and it broke my heart because of the nature of the loss, the sacrifice of this man who I instantly felt to be beautiful, and bless-ed of spirit. I never knew what he looked like, and it didn’t feel like a distant loss.
Peace to his family as they recall him in the quiet moments.
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My heart sunk and my eyes welled up when I read that James Kim was found dead. I am neither mixed nor do I have an interracial family, but I fel t a connection to him and his family as well. I was really hoping they would find him alive.
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I too felt a human and mixed (Asian father/ white mother) family connection and followed the story closely.
I hear about tragedies everyday, most on a much larger scale that this one, but this one clung to me differently.
Respect for James and prayers for his family.
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Rest in peace, James Kim. I send my condolences to his family as well.
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I don’t dispute the general human interest in the story. However, to see an man of color portrayed as being a loving and sacrificng father is indeed rare.
I don’t think we should argue that the interracial aspect of the family makes them special, but interracial couples are rarely portrayed in this light. Moreover, Asian men are rarely protrayed as loving family men, and to see this man held up as a role model (not a karate guy, or a cold father, or an immigrant smuggler or any other stereotypical roles) is a marked departure from the typical mass media portrayal.
Did you notice all of the pictures of him holding his kids? It brings tears to my eyes to see such a loving father, a man who gave the ultimate sacrifice to rescue his family.
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Rachel,
I would love to have a discussion about the lack of portrayal of a sympathetic, caring Asian father in the media, but not on this thread, due to the nature of the reasons for the thread.
Coming from a community with a bad rep for its fatherly representation across the board, I never found the qualities I will agree are evident in Mr. Kim’s family photos, to be contradictory qualities to those of the serious, on-the-job Dad.
Guess I assumed we simply weren’t being inundated with such images due to some cultural habits, much like those of my husband’s family: they don’t hug the children much after the kids are about four years of age, and they don’t hug each other (the adults) at all.
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This story broke my heart, as I sincerely prayed that he would be found alive. It transcends race, it’s the story of a man making the ultimate sacrifice to save his wife and children. This is a story about love in the purest, strongest form. While I pray for the Kim family during this difficult transition, I hope they take some comfort knowing that he was an extraordinary human being. God Bless Them. Rest in Peace James.
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Hey, if you’re shallow, then I’m shallow too. I was just looking at a pic of James Kim and his kids and it just hit me like ten bricks: it’s an Asian dad doting on his hapa girl. Just exactly like my dad was with me. It broke my heart all over again.
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An obnoxious salt-in-wounds twist I read about yesterday: The road his family’s car was on? Should have been chained off in early November, but was cut by vandals (probably illegal hunters). Having been on several old logging roads in winter, even without snowfall, I know how nasty and treacherous they are. To hear the entire thing was preventable? Heart-breaking!
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“However, to see an man of color portrayed as being a loving and sacrificng father”
Of colour? I wasn’t aware that white wasn’t a colour.
I totally agree with the portrayal of an Asian man going through the ultimate sacrifice to save his family, and the subsequent impact it will have on people who read this story who previously thought asian men as wimps who were serious ,”career more than family” blokes.
To have such a chivalrous and honourable act done by an asian without use of any stereotypes, and then shown to the world has done more for the image of asian men than any lobbying or rants could.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
In case you missed it… at Addicted to Race on 08 Dec 2006 at 1:52 pm
[…] Rest in peace, James: James Kim’s death has been absolutely heartbreaking. Is it shallow to feel a special connection to this family because they’re a mixed family, like mine? I don’t know. But I’ve been very affected by this story. […]