Submitted by Rance Go, Mar 26, 2007 21:40

The New York Sun's San Francisco correspondent rendered a fair and accurate story on Sen. Clinton's campaign tiff with the Asian American press, as it was a big story here on this part of the West Coast and in the various Asian American communities. It's been known that politicians have mined those communities for millions of dollars in campaign contributions and the grass-roots people have wondered why are we, many of us 7 generations deep into American soil, still treated as "foreigners." Accentuating that those feelings of discrimination are occasions when writings hyphenate Americans of Asian or Chinese ancestry: Asian-American. I notice that in Gerstein's piece, both hyphenated and non-hyphenated styles are used. Many of us prefer the non-hyphenated as the hyphen suggests an either/or, split personality, when, in actuality we are fusions of cultural and ethnic backgrounds and experience. The non-hyphen also seems consistent with the usage of Italian American and Jewish American and African American. Thank you for your attention. Rance Go.

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