PrintJanuary 19, 2009
The triumph of hyphenism
"Hyphenism" was H.L. Mencken's word for what we call "African-(hyphen)-Americans," "Latino-(hyphen)-Americans," and worst of all, "White-(hyphen)-Male-(hyphen)-Southern-(hyphen)-Americans." In the 1930s, when Mencken was writing the most brilliant political satire in American history, it was the hyphenated Irish, the Germans, the English Americans, the Jews, and so on. Hyphenism says, "Look in the mirror. If you look black, you know who you're must vote for." This election is an historic victory for a new kind of hyphenism, which could be called biological hyphenism. Look in the mirror with that little checklist. Woman? Check that biological hyphen. Gay? Check. Black? Check. It's all plainly visible in the mirror, making the New Hyphenism the easiest and dumbest way to categorize human beings and reduce them to brightly colored M&M's. Americans like Clarence Thomas have been accused of being "race traitors," a term...(Read Full Article)
