There are a certain number of close-minded thugs, especially on university campuses, who accuse anybody who asks intelligent questions about groups and enduring traits of being racist or sexist.

[...]

Not long ago, people said that globalization and the revolution in communications technology would bring us all together. But the opposite is true. People are taking advantage of freedom and technology to create new groups and cultural zones. Old national identities and behavior patterns are proving surprisingly durable. People are moving into self-segregating communities with people like themselves, and building invisible and sometimes visible barriers to keep strangers out.

( All Cultures Are Not Equal )
__________

In the UK:

So how would you, the reader, feel about being ethnically rebranded? No, please don't look over at that black person in the corner! I mean you, the white one! (Or, should I say, the hyphenated-British one?)

That is, after all, what our Home Office minister has just suggested. While her boss, Charles Clarke, has been away on holiday, Hazel Blears has decided that giving us all double-barrelled identities would be a great idea, and would help to make everyone seem valued and included in our modern society.

She's apparently been inspired by the US, where descriptions such as Irish-American, Italian-American and African-American have done so much to bring communities together in a big group-hug of brotherly love.

Forget marginalisation and discrimination; forget alienation, and how it has helped turn some towards terrorism; all we need now is a neat little addition to our nationality and all our troubles will go far away...

Multiple Choices
Hazel Blears has stirred up a hornet's nest by asking ethnic minorities whether they would prefer a hyphenated label as a means of achieving a more comfortable identity.

Life on a Hyphen Edge
Hazel Blears' idea of double-barrelled identities is effectively based on skin colour, and offers only a second-rate nationality.