Dear Geist,

Why have people stopped putting the hyphen in “Asian Canadian,” “Japanese American” and so on? It's fine with me either way, but I remember what a struggle it was back in the '70s to get people to write “Japanese-American” and “Asian-Canadian” and so on, with hyphens, in a deliberate inclusive move to connect the two cultures.

—Dana Webster, Chicago IL

Dear Dana,

Your question points to a perfect example of how flexible languages must be, as people speak, write, think, scrutinize meaning, etc., in new ways and push the language(s) to keep up. At this point, in English, the “hyphenation” question is being embraced by some and resisted by others, both for good reasons. Our colleagues at Conscious Style Guide note that African-American and Chinese-American, both with the hyphen, are firmly preferred by some people working with language, and others find the hyphen patronizing. Lots of food for thought!

—The Editors