Why the ‘B’ in ‘Black’ Is Capitalized at DiversityInc
Question:
Could you explain why the “b” in “black Americans” is not capitalized? I’ve noticed that other ethnic groups all are capitalized. But not Black people. Why is this?
Answer:
Most mainstream print publications in the United States use what is known as “AP style,” or the style dictated by The Associated Press Stylebook. This book and web site describe what to capitalize and what not to capitalize (among other rules of grammar).
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I made the decision not to follow AP style in the case of “Black” and “white” when it applies to describing people. AP style is to capitalize neither; however, terms such as African American, Negro, Caucasian, Italian American or Asian are all capitalized.
Regardless of whether there is adequate representation among the decision makers at the AP, I felt DiversityInc needed to be more accurate.
The word “Black” is used around the world to describe people who have “racial” features indicating African ancestry. Please keep in mind that the convention of race has been discarded by science–genetically, we are all one race, and the human-genome project proves we are all from Africa.
“Black” is also accepted by many Black people as an inoffensive description. It is a generalized description and can be supplemented by another description such as Black Canadian, Black African American, Nigerian American or Black Latino. However, many Black people describe themselves simply as being “Black,” and this reality is reflected in a body of literature, music and academic study.
I do not believe “white” needs to be capitalized because people in the white majority don’t think of themselves in that way. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this–it’s just how it is. The exception is white supremacists who have a definite vision for what “white” means. Most American white people describe themselves in more defined terms, such as Irish American or Jewish. I will make the point that African Americans (descendents of slaves) cannot define themselves more accurately than an entire continent because their ancestry was obliterated by the practices of enslavers, which included breaking apart tribal and family bonds.
I don’t think there will ever be a time in our country where “white” becomes “White.” Nor do I think white people will accept the term “minority” when we become less than 50 percent of our population by roughly 2045. I think that’s a good thing–people should be allowed to describe themselves, not have descriptions forced on them. I also think that the term “minority” is a pejorative and has no place in describing people.
Our capitalization of “Black” is both a reflection of reality and of respect. Opinions will differ on this, but as long as I make the decisions on editorial policy and content at DiversityInc, this is how this publication will write “Black” and “white.”
Luke Visconti’s Ask the White Guy column is a top draw on DiversityInc.com. Visconti, the founder and CEO of DiversityInc, is a nationally recognized leader in diversity management. In his popular column, readers who ask Visconti tough questions about race/culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age can expect smart, direct and disarmingly frank answers.
4:56 pm
The article and the quotes that follow show the inconsistent rules, or at least the inconsistent application of a rule, that must be applied to reach the desired end of those that most vehemently support divesity and multiculturalism. They want equality for minorities in both our courts and culture (as they should since that’s correct thing both legally and morally), but they’re also often the same people that go through the “rhetorical pretzel” (as pointed out earlier) so as not to apply the same rules to those among the majority.
It’s so much easier to craft one rule and apply it equally to all people. That way you end up with equal treatment, and you lessen criticsm that you’re applying different standards based on race or applying the same standard arbitraily. And, oh yeah, the author would have saved himself time in creating and writing an argument to justify his differing application of the existing AP rule.
7:39 pm
True story:
I used to say that black people should be called black, and the politically-correct “African-American” moniker was just overly politically correct. People don’t call me European-American. I’m white. Whites and Blacks.
I once made this argument and realized I was looking at an Asian. I would never, ever call an Asian “Yellow”… so that was one of those instant realizations that I had a big, gaping hole in my logic.
4:10 pm
I applaud your “stylistic disobedience” as a completely appropriate departure from an AP convention that should not apply to ‘Black’ when used as a referent to a racial group. It’s time for a push to get AP to recognize such an exception — plain and simple.
7:44 am
As an African American woman, I have long capitalized the term Black when referring to my people. I have always considered it in good taste and with due respect, to refer to myself or people of African descent with a “big B” rather than a litte b.” To me the term and reference to a Black person, with a capital B, means that one can be from anywhere in the world, but are of African descent. For example, You could be a Black from the continent of Africa, a Black from the Caribbean, a Black from South America or a Black person in the United States. Of course, history says that we are all of African descent, but based on generally acceptable reality, these people are known in my opinion, as Black. And that’s a fact, Jack!
7:36 pm
Not capitalizing “White” won’t help White people realize that they, too, are a race. It’s not a respect thing — not capitalizing it for the reasons you cite really only panders to the idea that White people are the tabula rasa in this country. Just because they often can trace their ancestry to specific countries/areas does not mean they identify that way, which I think is what you are suggesting. For instance, when someone is a lot of different kinds of European, they probably won’t identify strongly with any aspect of their roots, but rather as White, which is how people will see them anyway. Some White people who are not White supremacists do have a politicized racial identity; I count anti-racists in this group.
I hope you read my comment. I think my argument(s) is/are fairly valid.
Thanks!
2:44 pm
Growing up and going to school in the South in segregated institutions and divisions, I find people still refer and talk to each other in terms of Black, White, Elders, Jewish, Catholic, Baptist, Gay, Straight, married, divorced, liberal, conservative, crazy…Let’s just respect each other and keep evolving to a higher level. Eventually, the masses will become educated and learn how to treat each other with respect and see the benefit and beauty of being different.
7:32 am
Thank you Luke for opening a civil and badly needed discussion of race issues. I like how you make your points even though I may not agree with all of them. I want to respond to this point;
“I can’t think of a situation where white people must think about being white in this country.”
I’m constantly reminded of how ashamed I should be for the color I was born as. I find in America and all over youtube I’m constantly finding myself blamed for slavery, discrimination, destroying the earth and subjugating women not because I’m going around doing those things (certainly not intentionally) but simply because I’m White. Here’s an example in this blog;
“Why aren’t White Americans labeled European Americans, especially since they usurped the land from the original Black Native American Indians? These Europeans came from England to kill and slaughter the original Black Amerindians ”
If I make an unconditioned negative statement about Black people (which I wouldn’t) it would be racist because I’m saying that statement is true of ALL Black people. Black people are all different and a negative statement might be true for some but certainly not all. It would be insulting those people who don’t fit the description. I’m often frustrated that the same logic does not apply to White people. In the example I showed above the posters statement is unconditioned and therefor applies to all White people. He’s saying you and I and every White person in America came from England to slaughter the original inhabitants. I was born in America and I had no intention of killing anyone while I came out of my mothers womb. The fact that White people are the only race it’s politically correct to make such generalization about is really frustrating. The double standards are a major factor that led me to leave and move to Korea where it’s not a bad thing to be White. I’m grateful to see what some of the other Black posters have said about mutual respect. I would like that. I want to see a country where we can appreciate our differences, but give each other equal respect. I do think the treatment of Black people in the past was horrendous but I don’t think referring to a baby born yesterday to white parents as a murderer is the answer (Yes “White people” includes babies). I’m glad to hear inclusion is meaning everyone. I also hope some day soon it will be considered wrong to stereotype ANY race.
2:29 pm
Wow, these are all really thoughful posts and though some are a little bit radical in my opinion it’s great to see intelligent observations and polite argument. That’s pretty rare in my experience.
To the people who are offended by those saying “Black” shouldn’t be capitalized I think you may have misinterpreted the authors’ intentions. The way I interpreted it was, “Black” should not be capitalized if “White” is not capitalized and vice versa. I think the main point here is that all of the race-ethnicities should be capitalized because they are all equal and deserving of grammatical recognition. Following a different format would only drive a spike between the uncapitalized race-ethnicity and those that were capitalized. =)
1:43 pm
I think most Black people refer to themselves as such. As I learned in undergrad from an African-American professor, I am not an African-American because my parents are not directly from Africa, direct descendants, nor did I move here from Africa. He on the other hand had moved from Ghana and now taught at the university. I agree with the author until he states that he does not capitalize whtie. To me they are both terms to describe race and should be treated equally. I rarely hear the term Caucasian, but I here White all the time.
1:40 pm
Several scholars argue “Black” should be capitalized as a proper noun because, similar to Asian and Latino, it denotes a specific cultural group. See, e.g., D. Wendy Greene, Black Women Can’t Have Blonde Hair . . . in the Workplace, 14 J. GEN. RACE & JUST. 405, 405 n. 2 (2011); Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Race, Reform, and Entrenchment: Transformation and Legitimation in Antidiscrimination Law, 101 HARV. L. REV. 1331, 1332 n. 2 (1988); see also Neil Gotanda, A Critique of “Our Constitution is Colorblind”, 44 STAN. L. REV. 1, 4 (1991). In agreement with these scholars, we use the terms “African American” or “Black” to denote Americans of African descendent.