Letter: Racial labeling needs to stop

Saturday, Sept. 30, 2000 | 2:50 a.m.

The front page of your Sept. 22 issue, which carried the story "LV schools official is accused of racial slurs," helped add a new word to my vocabulary: Arab-American. Your sports page tells me there are people from over 200 nations involved in the Olympics. Does this mean we can look forward to labeling people from 199 other cultures as partial Americans? I realize many like our country to be seen as a world leader in human affairs, but this cultural pride, which leads to demographic and ethnic counting and segregation, must end.

Why must we in America agonize over such labels? You can bet your Stars and Stripes that you'll never hear the words American-French, American-African or American-Japanese. Can't we all grow up with enough self-respect and confidence to be known by who we are and not where we come from?

MIKE MILLER

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