can be summarized in the different understandings of the hyphenated American. For conservative-nativists, the "American" in "Jewish-American" or "Asian-American" is the repository of both the greatest significance for the country and the greatest happiness for the hyphenated citizen. It is this side of the construct that denotes citizenship and rightly devotes its energy to coopting the other side. To be sure, as the British immigrant Randolph Bourne pointed out almost a century ago, far from being culturally neutral, nativists both identify "American culture" with their own processed version of the "Anglo-Saxon tradition," [21] seeking to extend its hegemony over the left side of the hyphen. Their aim, in other words, is to "conserve" the primacy of what they purport to be the neo-Anglo Saxon element of the cumulative American legacy.
For liberal-pluralists, on the other hand, economic and political interests may be rightly sought from the right side of the hyphen, but the greater meaning and happiness for the individual resides to the left. This liberal model implies two things. First, ethnic and religious groups can intervene in political life only to defend themselves and advance their legitimate interests but not to impose their culture or religion on others. Second, the primary function of the right side of the hyphen is essentially to protect the left side. On this understanding, the true value of citizenship resides in both the ability to live (culturally and religiously) as one sees fit and in the knowledge that government will protect this ability as a full-fledged civil right. As such, individual citizens' primary commitment to the right side of the hyphen is essentially an effort to protect their protection.[22]
-Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking toward the Third Resurrection
by Sherman Jackson, pg. 139
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