DISGRASIAN OF THE WEAK! The Murder of Annie Le
By Guest Contributor Jen, originally published at Disgrasian
There are things I can’t stop thinking about in the murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le.
Like the fact that she was 4′11″ and 90 lbs, which seems oh-so-small.
And that she was killed in the middle of the day.
The fact everyone now knows and finds particularly cruel: that she was found murdered, stuffed in a wall, on the day she was to be married.
That Annie’s fiance’s name is Widawsky, calling to mind widows and widowers, people left behind by death.
That there’s a theory floating around she may have been killed over mice.
This phenomenon called “workplace violence.” Or that it’s the fourth-leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the U.S.
The single bead of the necklace she was wearing that was found in the lab area where she was last seen alive. A bead that must have broken off her necklace when she was strangled. Was it precious? Was it cheap? Was it from a necklace you could buy at a jewelry store, at a street fair, on a beach?
A video taken of her sitting at a desk in front of a computer, her glasses on, a bottle of water open, where she waves a little stuffed penguin to the camera, all of it so mundane and normal.
This week, Slate’s media critic Jack Shafer wrote in a piece called “Murder Draped in Ivy” that people have taken a particular, “prurient” interest in Annie Le’s murder because it occurred at Yale:
If you plan to be murdered and expect decent press coverage, please have the good sense to be a Harvard or Yale student or professor….
Members of the elite press identify with Harvard and Yale—even if they didn’t go there. They may work for someone who went, or wish they’d gone, or hope their children go.
I’m not a member of the elite press, but I can say I identify with Annie Le. And it’s not because I went to Yale, and my freshman year, a fellow student was murdered–shot and killed–about a stone throw’s from my Common Room window. It’s because Annie Le seemed like someone I know, someone I’m friends with, someone I might have competed against in high school, someone like me, a girl–and not a body, a height measurement, an anecdote about cruel timing, a bead from a necklace, a statistic–who was simply living her life before someone stamped it out of her for no good reason.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
A. wrote:
The murder of Annie Le just struck me as her being killed by a guy with Asian Fetish. I asked my best friend if I was wrong for thinking this – she (also Asian) thought the same thing.
And what is so sickening is that this sort of creepy stalking is considered to be acceptable if it’s towards Asian women, because Asian women are only sexy little nymphos anyway that will do whatever you tell them to do.
And knowing the little bit that they do about Clark – that it is possible that he may have raped a former girlfriend and that he was crazy controlling? He’s sick, and this whole thing just gives me this nagging suspicion that he was pissed because this Asian woman was going to marry herself someone else and not be open to him anymore.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 12:31 pm ¶
Nadra wrote:
There is no evidence (that I’ve heard) that Ray Clark had an Asian fetish. Just because he was in an Asian club in high school doesn’t make him an Asianphile. The reason they are calling this an episode of workplace violence is because Clark apparently had no romantic/sexual feelings for Le. We don’t even know if he was aware that she was getting married. I find it offensive that we automatically think a sexual fetish is at play simply because Le was Asian and female. Tensions run high in work places. People get pissed and resort to violence against coworkers all the time. Perhaps Ray Clark thought Le was disrespecting him for the “sub-standard” way she maintained the mice cages and just snapped.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 1:22 pm ¶
Urban Suburbinite wrote:
I agree with A. I also want to add, that he may have also flipped out that she was *surprise* not a stereotypical subservient asian woman, as some want to think of Asian women.
From what we are told about the suspect, he was very mentally imbalanced. Another racial element is that had he been a black or latino man with a past of alleged rape, would he have been working in a Yale lab? I don’t think so.
I’m from CT and have lived less than a mile from Yale. 1. My mother was a police dispatcher and violence against women is pretty equal amongst the races. However punishment is not equal (No surprise there.) I’m sure you’ve heard of Alex Kelly, the “preppy rapist”, whose parents sent him out of the country to escape prosecution:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/24/nyregion/24rapist.html?_r=1
My mother has described many cases, where wealthy white guys can rape/damn near kill a girl and if mommy or daddy made a contribution to the right campaign, all they get is community service and their record expunged. Had he done the same thing and been poor and black, he’d still be doing time today.
Here’s #2. People treat New Haven, CT like it’s Pleasant Valley. Although the crime rate has gone down, it was higher than that of NYC. CT has a mis-reputation (yeah I made that word up, but bear with me) for a.) being very suburban, and b.) not being very diverse. Cities in CT are just like cities in any other state, if you would be more cautious in Miami, LA, or NYC, you should be in New Haven, and Hartford (which often has a higher crime rate than MIA, LA, an NYC).
Every year of my life in CT, I’ve heard of young privileged mostly white women and men being murdered, raped, and mugged at our various colleges. (Last year it was the Jewish girl, shot at Wesleyan that made national news.) Most of the raping and murdering is by the hands of their classmates/co-workers. Meanwhile Yale (and other schools) buys up surrounding neighborhoods so prospective students don’t see any scary black/brown people living too close to campus. Little do they know, that they should be more scared of their own classmates.
The mugging on the other hand keeps happening while jogging through the park wearing an iPod/iPhone between the hours of 3am-6am. Stop doing that!
Annie’s case has only made national news because her body was found on campus. If she was found in the woods, CT would just sweep it under the rug to make it seem like we are that quiet little state where you can safely send your children to college.
Sorry for the long post.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 1:37 pm ¶
Phrone wrote:
Personally, I think a lot of the media frenzy around it has been because of the details around the body. The fact that the police found her body in the wall was honestly, for me, horrifying, and it seems to be what most people talk about in the case. Before they found out the details of the case, I was afraid that it would be a serial killer — because that just seems like such a fucked up thing to do.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 2:01 pm ¶
Pearl wrote:
A few days after Annie Le was discovered, my soon-to-be mother-in-law asked me if I knew her. Confused, I asked her why; I wasn’t following coverage that closely. It seems that we were in the same graduating class at the University of Rochester, where she completed her undergraduate studies.
We never crossed paths at UR. Nevertheless, certain things have struck me about her story and made what happened to her seem more “real”. Similarly to her, I am 24, and in less than a week I am going to be married to the boyfriend I met and began dating while at UR. Whenever I see something about her in the news or on a blog, I realize that before she was killed, she was where I was. Not to sound cliched, but she was about to start a new “chapter” in her life, like I am now. She was young, she was (I’m sure) only realizing her potential, and she was about to proclaim her commitment to someone who she cared so much about.
Her death has really made me think.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 3:36 pm ¶
Lola wrote:
@ A, my first thought was also that this was some psycho loser that she rejected. The fact that she was murdered right before her wedding cannot be coincidence. What terrifies me the most about this incident is that she was killed in a so called secure building surrounded by cameras.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 4:31 pm ¶
Josh wrote:
As an Asian male, I really have to take issue with the assumption that there is an “Asian fetish” aspect of this situation. The mere fact that the victim is an attractive Asian female and the alleged perpetrator is a White male is way too little evidence to jump to that conclusion. Now, I have to admit that my gut reaction was something of a similar conclusion. However, upon reflection I realized that I have no basis to make that sort of accusation. To do so is offensive, frankly, so I completely agree with Nadra’s comment on that.
Making assumptions about him flipping out because she’s not subservient or because she’s marrying someone else are based on the flimsiest of actual evidence.
Aside from the assumption about the Asian subservient stereotype, I think Urban Suburbinite makes some good points.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 5:00 pm ¶
GüeraLola wrote:
@ Josh I agree with o you 100% One thing I was wondering maybe it may have been were her murder killed her because of competition. especially in a school like Harvard is pretty high and work tensions tend to be high also in that kind of situation.
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 6:21 pm ¶
Titanis walleri wrote:
“Had he done the same thing and been poor and black, he’d still be doing time today.”
The same if he were *poor* and still white, I imagine…
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 8:28 pm ¶
Aimee Lu wrote:
She was killed because she was a woman!
He would not have killed a man. Asian fetish? Whatever. SHE WAS A WOMAN!
Posted 21 Sep 2009 at 10:16 pm ¶
Miko Holt wrote:
Well commenting on this provoking article and with sadness on the murder of Annie Le I must say as an African American woman with a journalism background… I’ve always been interested in exploring the media’s claim of what is “newsworthy”.
Frankly I believe even if a Black girl was found dead at Yale it would make national news. Just because Yale was involved. But, most importantly…I did wish to note this.
I’ve often told my daughter that if anything ever happened to her –I would not rest until our story was heard and that includes in all local/regional media outlets. God forbid I’d go through losing my only child! But, I’ve been witness to Black girls getting five minutes of airplay whereas stories like Natalie Holloway get a whole hour. What does this mean?
On a heartfelt note, I do feel for Annie Le’s family and friends…I’m sure she is truly missed.
Posted 22 Sep 2009 at 7:20 am ¶
dan wrote:
People just don’t immerse themselves into a “foreign” culture club for nothing.
Posted 22 Sep 2009 at 9:10 am ¶
Medusa wrote:
Did anyone else find the reporting in the writing in the Yahoo News report to be more sensationalism than actual reporting? I mean, the “muscular high school jock” is almost being painted as a sympathetic character, which is absolutely vile.
I’m not in the US so I’m not getting regular coverage of this, but my understanding from following the story on the internet is that this is like a Scott Peterson media circus.
Posted 22 Sep 2009 at 9:38 am ¶
Minotaar wrote:
I am disappointed at how little discussion/concern there has been in the media about the alleged murderer being an asiaphile, and that this murder may very well be race-related. It has bias crime written all over it.
I wonder if it is being written off because she had a white (I assume – eastern euro name) fiance.
Posted 22 Sep 2009 at 2:05 pm ¶
Alan Chong wrote:
I think Clark had an issue with Le’s gender coupled with his need to control. If you look at his history, he liked to control and stalk the women in his life – mentally and physically. If you read between the lines based on media reports, Clark’s current girlfriend appears to be susceptible to manipulation by him. His former girlfriend had to get the police and his parents involved so that he would leave her alone. Bottom line is that could not handle an intelligent, small in stature, and assertive woman standing up to him. Very sad, but many more out there in the world just like him.
Posted 22 Sep 2009 at 6:09 pm ¶
Maria wrote:
There appears to be a misassumption that Annie Le did not keep the mouse cages clean. Cleaning the mouse cages was Raymond Clark’s job. His text message to her could have just been a pretext to get her alone. Had she really been guilty of leaving the cages dirty, her pattern of behavior according to press reports would have her admit to it, with no need for a meeting. Raymond Clark has issues with lack of power and control. He may have been laboring under stereotypes about Asian females and may not have been able to accept that Annie would not just “fall in line” if falsely accused.
Posted 22 Sep 2009 at 7:48 pm ¶
siditty wrote:
I find it sad, that the media thinks and people think the only way they can relate to someone, the only way to be newsworthy is to come from an Ivy League background or be a certain race. Had this girl been named Tameka and had been attending technical school, no one would give a damn. Similar to how Asia McGowan was shot and killed by Anthony Powell, at their local community college, because she spurned his advances. Where was the national media coverage of this murder suicide? Why could we not relate to a black female college student, murdered on campus? Was it because non black people can’t relate to a black woman? Or can people who attend Ivy league schools not see the humanity in someone who goes to community college?
Posted 23 Sep 2009 at 11:07 am ¶
A. wrote:
Minotaar – it makes too many people uncomfortable to think about – the fact that a WHITE GUY could have KILLED a woman that was Asian because he may have been an asiaphile? Especially when you consider that something regarding Asiaphilia happened at Princeton quite some time ago.
His control issues makes me think even moreso that he may be an Asiaphile. It’s been something that I’ve personally seen all of the time – many Asiaphiles enjoy feeling as though they have some sort of control over Asian women. I’ve seen stalkers and other such things – and deal with it firsthand quite a bit by having an Asian roommate (white guys thinking that all possible rules of engagement go completely out of the window when dealing with Asian women – such as showing up to houses unannounced, not figuring out that no means no, etc – and these are things that generally do not happen when they deal with non-Asian women.) Also, the fact that she was killed just before her wedding is way too damn suspect.
I generally don’t buy most of the “mouse cages” stuff. Coworkers did say that Clark was a prick in that department, but I personally think that a lot of this other stuff completely outweighs that.
Posted 23 Sep 2009 at 11:42 am ¶
Reiter wrote:
I recall a number of horrific kidnapping and rapes a while back committed by some sicko(s) who targeted Asian women because of the whole Asian fetish thing, and some pundits in the media had the gall to imply that the victims deserved it. Way to blame the victim; wrong place, wrong time, they dressed too sexy, they were asking for it, the media paints them as submissive sex pots so of course the perp(s) had these understandable fetishes/expectations they wanted to fulfill, etc. – asically making excuses for what these guys did to these women. Absolutely disgusting.
I think in this case the media is trying to downplay the racial angle deliberately, as if Annie Le gets a free pass for being Asian (you know, because we’re the model minority) but ignores race altogether simply because it makes whites uncomfortable to begin with and any mention of it will offend their tender sensibilities, so let’s not talk about the elephant in the room.
Yea, I hate the media 99.9% of the time.
Posted 24 Sep 2009 at 9:01 am ¶
pixilated wrote:
@dan: i kind of take issue with this. while i haven’t read enough about the case to have learned more about the suspect from what i’ve read here and in the other thread crossposted from we are respectable negroes about this case it seems it is rather presumptuous to attach the “asiaphile” tag onto him.
yes, people don’t just join “foreign” culture clubs “for nothing” – i would think in some cases they join because of a genuine appreciation of and desire to learn more about said culture. i don’t get where your sarcasm comes from but it seems misplaced and misdirected in this instance (not saying at times it isn’t considering the context of this blog)
unless i’m reading your post wrong, which is possible
Posted 26 Sep 2009 at 8:48 am ¶
psa wrote:
i would think in some cases they join because of a genuine appreciation of and desire to learn more about said culture.
So much to learn. 99% of the time white males join “Asian” clubs, it’s because they have an Asian fetish.
The concept of “Asia” being a race equivalent to black or white is just nonsense, that anyone who actually knows anything about “Asian” cultures at all would not feel any affinity for the engineered “Asian” ethnonym.
Posted 26 Sep 2009 at 2:53 pm ¶