hyphenated american

At my high school newspaper, I learned that when you use "Asian American" as a noun, there's no hyphen (I see many Asian Americans), but when you use it as an adjective, we insert the hyphen (This is an Asian-American value.).

I was reading over one of Cyrus's papers, and I thought I'd found a typo when I saw a blank space between "Asian" and "American" being used as an adjective. "You need a hyphen here!" I said. But it turns out that things have changed since high school. It turns out that the standard usage takes out the hyphen altogether because the hyphenated adjective connotes a time when "hyphenated Americans" were considered a lower status compared to just Americans.

Have you ever heard that term before? "Hyphenated American?" I haven't, and I guess that's why I never thought twice about the previous rule.

So, Asian Americans, remember that when writing a paper about, say, the Asian American identity or Asian American immigrant history...no hyphen!

yul kwon, part 2

http://no-carrots-please.blogspot.com/

Happy first day of March!

Last Saturday's Harvard dinner with keynote speaker Yul Kwon was really interesting. It was hosted by Harvard Law School's APALSA (Asian Pacific American Law School Association) where Cyrus is a board member. (Guess what vegetables were served for dinner? Cauliflower and...carrots!)

He talked about his motivation for going on Survivor, which, when you look at his career, isn't a likely choice. He didn't even actively try to get on the show; he was recruited. They were specifically looking for Asian Americans, and after a very shocking interview with Mark Burnett, a powerful TV exec who asked Yul the same kinds of ignorant questions about Asian Americans that my second grade peers asked me in elementary school, he got the offer. Yul decided that there needed to be more Asian Americans who were breaking the mold and confounding the stereotypes of Asian Americans, and it was really interesting to hear all about the challenges he's faced and how dedicated he is to his cause.

But then I think about myself, and I wonder if I'm perpetuating the stereotype that Asian women are submissive, won't rock the boat or cause problems, etc. But the stereotype must have started somewhere. This is what my upbringing has told me to be like, and I fully accept the way I am (well, mostly). Or, am I this way because I'm meeting society's expectations of me? And maybe I have some inner Aggressive Ina who is a natural leader and wants to change the world? ...Or maybe something in between? :)

So I felt a little out of place at a dinner full of motivated, highly intelligent Asian Americans in law school who nodded their heads vigorously when Yul said that we must break these stereotypes!

I don't think about my Asian Americanness much, but maybe I should...

yul kwon

Cyrus and I went to a Harvard event tonight where this guy was the keynote speaker! It was a lot more substantial than this video might suggest. :)