Remember when being a "hyphenated-American" meant wearing green on the seventeenth of March? Not any more. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the balancing act between racial pride and national consciousness. How is the American identity changing as the population becomes ever more diverse? And what about those who violently oppose this change?

SEGMENT 1

Columnist and broadcaster Carl Rowan tells Jim Fleming why the militia movement is more dangerous than the Ku Klux Klan and what can be done to prevent the racial catastrophe he says they intend to provoke. Rowan's latest book is "The Coming Race War in America." Also, Juan Flores of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, and the City University of New York, tells Judith Strasser who is included by the term "Latino" and why; and how the Latino community addresses issues of race.

SEGMENT 2:

Scott Minerbrook is the child of an inter-racial marriage. His white mother's family cut off contact, even suggesting that the children be put up for adoption. Minerbrook tells Jim Fleming about his efforts as an adult to understand his white family and their circumstances. He tells the full story in his book "Divided to the Vein."

SEGMENT 3:

Author and performance artist David Mura tells Steve Paulson that Asian Americans haven't always been seen as "the model minority." He says they became "honorary whites" about the time Black Americans began demanding their civil rights. Mura's latest book is "Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality and Identity." Also, novelist Gish Jen talks about growing up Chinese and Catholic in a Jewish neighborhood and says we need a more sophisticated way to think about ethnicity. Gish Jen's latest novel is "Mona in the Promised Land," just out in paperback.

Distribution dates:

• week of 07/13/97 - hour 3