New York Times, Saturday, August 8, 2020

We built this puzzle around MODEL MINORITY, a demographic myth we feel is important to highlight. We know, however, that this is a term that could elicit discomfort among some solvers, particularly those who look to puzzles to distract themselves from the world. As solvers ourselves, we notice our own tendency to conflate discomfort over an entry in a crossword puzzle with discomfort over the real-world phenomenon that the entry references.

By highlighting the MODEL MINORITY myth as a marquee entry in our puzzle, we hope both to introduce the concept to folks who aren't aware of it, and to make those who have experienced the social pressures associated with a perceived MODEL MINORITY — like Sid himself — feel seen. It's not the easiest topic to address in a crossword puzzle, especially given the practical limitations of crossword publishing (e.g., clue brevity). But it's prudent to shed light on racial bias at this critical time of societal reckoning—and crosswords are, undoubtedly, a reflection of our society.

This grid includes several other entries that we wanted to clue sensitively, and we're grateful to the editing team for their care and thoughtfulness. We're also glad that many of our original clues made it to print—some of our personal favorites are 58-Across, 3-Down, and 11-Down. Of course, the editing team came through with their own awesome takes; we especially love their angles for 22-Down and 52-Down.

In addition to our shared love of puzzles, the two of us share an alma mater and love for St. Louis: Sid is an MD/PhD student at Washington University in St. Louis, where Brooke went to college. We're also both academics in the sciences: Brooke is a postdoc in mathematics in Berlin, Germany, and Sid's PhD is in biomedical engineering. Finally, while this may be the Husic–Sivakumar team's debut in the Times, we've collaborated extensively in other venues, including the extremely-worth-your-time Grids for Good charity crossword pack (available for just a $10 donation to the COVID/racial justice fund of your choice!), and Sid's indie puzzle site, Sid's Grids. We're also both excited to be contributing individual puzzles to this year's Lollapuzzoola crossword tournament, which will be held virtually one week from today!

I loved 95% of this puzzle and was all set to make it my POW! Amazing gridwork, with so many colorful HUMDINGERs. Congrats to both relatively new constructors, such top-notch craftsmanship!

Then, I finished at MODEL MINORITY.

Sid and I had a thoughtful exchange as I struggled to come to terms with how depressed this entry made me. I hate being reminded of something that has plagued me my entire life. I turn to crosswords to escape the realities of the world, and these days, I need escapes more than ever. In Stella Zawistowski's words, "The whole point of a crossword, or any puzzle, is to surprise and delight people."

It sucked to have delight taken away today.

Additionally, the MODEL MINORITY stereotype can't be summarized in a pithy crossword clue — any short sentence is likely to do it serious injustice, or worse. I wonder how African-American solvers will react, since one could argue that Asian-Americans aren't the ones hurt most by this "myth."

Sid believes that it's imperative to force these discussions. I don't agree. Rarely do Americans like being forced to learn, especially when it's about politics, race, or religion. I fear that Sid's philosophy — to which I devoutly subscribed when I was younger — will achieve more harmful backlash than good.

So how do you influence people? I don't have a great answer, but as more gray enters my beard, I've come to believe that more subtle, less in-your-face approaches are better for achieving long-term results. If you feel the need to use crosswords to teach, instead of blaringly headlining MODEL MINORITY, why not tuck MODEL into the fill, clued as [___ minority (damaging racial stereotype)]? That might have more quietly but more effectively sparked people to go read up on it, maybe even with an open mind.

I'm hopeful that if more big thinkers like Sid focus their efforts on devising creatively subtle approaches that reach people in a way that they're open to listening, the world will slowly morph into a less angrily divided place.