The massacre at Virginia Tech is eliciting a profusion of confusing and off-the-mark public reactions on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Americans seem not to know where to lay the blame, and Koreans in South Korea seem all too eager to bear collective responsibility and shame for the outrageous acts of a total stranger. Labeling and classifying may be ways for people to make sense of irrational things, but playing with identity politics and cultural differences in not the way to clarify a chaotic situation.