Word: hyphen
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...hyphen-Americans. N.P.: Americans, period. Nothing like a common enemy to unite and focus all that diversity. O.P. says it's not about Islam. N.P. says if it's not about Islam, why isn't every Muslim leader rising to condemn bin Laden? Under the O.P., racial profiling was abhorred, officially at least. Now racial profiling of male air travelers from the Middle East seems an inevitable piece of common sense; it is no longer a matter of pulling people over merely for Driving While Black. After Sept. 11, I was a guest on an African-American radio show...
...feeling obtuse, I say "New Jersey," knowing what they want to hear is "China." Even if my parents left that country decades ago and I myself have never been there, I am still Chinese to them, or, at best, Chinese-American. Though I am happy to own that hyphen, I don't think I could efface it if I wanted...
...number of numbers to list and, in the process, often extending the length of each number, to cope with a digital dearth) and http://'s. To reach a friend a few blocks away, I have to type 38 letters that mean nothing, a numeral, two underlines, an ampersand, a hyphen and two periods, all in a uniform, dotty sequence that will go nowhere if I add a single space or omit a stroke...
...abruptly informed (by a white friend) that "Oriental" was now a racist term and that I would heretofore be known as "Asian." College brought the all-important addition of "American," so that I am now "Asian-American," or, if one really wants to split hairs, "Asian American" (the hyphen, to some, indicates an undesirable hierarchy or dualism...
Cast out the hyphen; recognize an imperfect world...and let us strive, as Americans together, as members only of the human race, towards the Promised Land that is our potential. Jeremy R. Jenkins...