"Why the 'B' in 'Black' Is Capitalized at DiversityInc" Readers' Comments

I'm an Italian/Irish American woman and I'm also a writer/editor who has used AP style in the past.

I was puzzled by your use of the upper-case B and the lower-case w. Now that I know your reasons, I can see that there is a logic behind your decision.

Still, when I see the words "Black" and "white" next to each other in print, it feels like my group is less respected.

In general, I strive for better words than these two polarizing colors to describe ourselves. In terms of color, I am more of a "peach-colored" American.

Kudos for your article! I thought it was insightful.

I had two additional comments. One has to do with the reference to African Americans being descendents of slaves. By and large this is true, but unfortunately this leaves out those African Americans who are descendents of non-enslaved Africans.

Secondly, the term, "descendents of slaves" might be more correctly and compassionately stated as "descendents of people (or Africans) who were enslaved."

The former term is a blaming one and implies an almost permanent state of beingness, as if slavery was inherent in or imperative to the identity of the person referenced.

The latter term allows for the group's consideration as human beings, a group of people for whom there was culture and group identity, and upon whom the condition of enslavement was wrought.

I am an African American woman.

When I lived in Europe and visited other countries, I was referred to as American by other nationalities including Africans. I wasn't black until I returned to America. I don't ignore our differences but also believe focus on the difference weakens us. I don't mind Black but I prefer American! I look forward to the day when we see ourselves as the world sees us!

Malcolm X used the term Afro-Americans or Black -- African Americans as a term didn't come about until the 80's

I think it is so important for people to not only look at how we use terminology within the country, but be inquisitive about how others outside the USA describe us. As someone who travels to Africa frequently, they commonly use Black . So, I have embraced being a Black American.

I'm okay with capitalizing the "w" in White, it doesn't take anything away from me as a Black American. But I also understand editor's privilege - you do what you feel is best for the readership.

Just my thoughts.

Personally, as an African American woman, I would rather be referred to as and African American. I have always felt that the use of describing my race as Black is offensive. During the Civil Right Movement, I believe it was Malcolm X who fought so courageously to get us the identity of African American. This ties us to our slave ancestors as well as our new life in America. Throughout history, African American as well as other minortoties in the United States has had to fight for their identity. Simply referring to us as "Black" takes away from our identity as a race and is a constant reminder to me of slavery. We were given an identity through blood shed from our ancestors so that we would have a life in the United States.

You may find several African Americans that feel just the opposite of what I am saying and have accepted the term of being identified as "Black". This is their prerogative to be identified as such; however I would like to be identified in the Unite States as an African American woman.

I agree with capitalizing Black but would also capitalize White. You state that Black is used to describe people with "racial features" of African ancestry. If this is indeed the criteria because of slavery and Black women during that time not having a choice as to who would be the father of their children the "racial feature" identifier would be incorrect in many instances. American Blacks come in every color, hue, hair texture from straight to kinky, and facial features that could be from a variety of ehnic groups. American Blacks are unique because historically they are of mixed ancestry which is quite distinct and unique in it's own right.I am an American Black.

I'm sick and tired of this color thing! We are all citizens of this planet. Some think they are better than others. We all eat, sleep and use the facilities. We all bleed red! Some of us have a natural tan, other's pay a great price to get one! No one is truly black, just as no one is truly white. We all come in colors, and that is the beauty of life! I agree with you on the issue though!

I agree with all of the points Mr. Visconti makes in his article except one: the capitalization of White. To me, it doesn't have anything to do with minority or majority status, it's a matter of consistency. At best, when you are using the terms Black and White in the same way (that is, to describe a race of people), it just looks odd to read a sentence that talks about Black and white people. At worst, it's a rather obvious microinequity.

"If we would use out nationality or ethnicity instead of "race" and "color" to describe ourselves, then we would not have to worry about whether or not we are denoting and dividing people 'accordingly'"

Guess she missed the part about "Black" Americans not knowing what our nationality or ethnicity is, due to the whole slavery thing.

Thanks for your article. My only disagreement is with your assertion that minority is a pejorative term. While it can certainly be used in a negative way (as can "bias", and "discrimination"), my feeling is that all of these words can be very usefully used in the context of understanding diversity dynamics: minority-majority, power and privilege, assumptions and bias, inclusion-exclusion, "us" and "them", are all important aspects of diversity conversations.

Thank you so much for the wonderful article! When I was doing my dissertation at UCLA in the 1980s, I needed a good academic argument for capitalizing the term Black. Dr. Alexander Astin, husband of Dr. Lena Astin, my committee chair, said, in essence, that it was simple: when used as nouns, both should be capitalized. When used as adjectives, neither should be used. When hyphenated, the adjective becomes part of the noun, and should be capitalized.

APA, as another respondent stated, now uses a good argument, but I prefer Dr. Sandy Astin's, because it doesn't violate any rules of English grammar, and cannot be said to bow to "political correctness." This is still a very controversial issue, and my youngest daughter is struggling with it as she is writing her dissertation, in spite of the APA suggestions, which doctoral candidates are supposed to follow. Not all academicians agree with the APA on this ussue.

I also use the term Black-American, rather than African American, to designate descendants of Africans enslaved and brought to the USA prior to its abolition of the slave trade. One of my ancestors was brought to this country as a slave in 1785, so I am Black-American. I no longer use the term African American, because there are many African immigrants to this country. While most choose to use the name of their country (i.e., Nigerian or Nigerian-American), they are usually included as African Americans or Blacks, which is misleading. The immigrant experience is quite different from the experience of the descendents of enslaved Africans. Immigrants make a conscious choice, for whatever reason, to leave their natal land and venture to the USA. Hettie, my African ancestor, was not given such a choice. My great-great-grandmother, who was a Native American, was descended from people who had been in this land for thousands of years. Only my white ancestors (English and Scottish)chose to immigrate to this country. Please continue in your most excellent endeavors regarding diversity.

I think that the very fact that neither are capitalized show how irrelevant they are in terms of describing people. If we would use out nationality or ethnicity instead of "race" and "color" to describe ourselves, then we would not have to worry about whether or not we are denoting and dividing people 'accordingly'.

I completely agree with your position on capitalizing Black.

I appreciate this topic and the opportunity to engage with others being thoughtful about it. In my own work, I've been following the guidance of the APA (not AP). Regarding racial and ethnic appellations, the APA states two basic guidelines (not rules): "specificity and sensitivity. In keeping with Guideline 2, authors are encouraged to avoid terms perceived as negative" (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Ed., 2001, p. 68). Racial and ethnic identity terms, as well as terms identifying national origin, are capitalized because they are designated as proper nouns. I acknowledge White Americans of African descent, or White African Americans, because of their self-identified race (White) and ethnic (African) origins; such persons might also identify a country of origin for themselves or their ancestors. I agree with the principle that people get to self-identify--to construct their own meaningful sense of themselves, and to reconstruct their own identity as desired/needed, as in Ms. Bethea's assertion (above) that "...'Black' will never firmly define who I am ever again" following her epiphany that the term 'Black' does not accurately describe the reality. Thank you for this topic, and for your own thinking on it.

I disagree with Luke about one thing: when whites are the minority in this country I believe many will very readily call themselves the minority and then clammer for minority rights.

I agree and capitalize Black in my work. It was suggested to me that I was racist against Whites because I had not capitalized 'white' as well. So I started capitalizing "White". Most of these writings are around census data though, so it refers to all people who are White.

I do like the points you make and consistently find the materials you publish helpful. Thanks.

I completely agree with your position on capitalizing Black.

Further more, there is implied inferiority when nationalities are listed in a sequence and all are capitalized but Black.

Read the last comment on the article from "desiree."

I agree, therefore henceforth I will refer to myself as a Black African-American of Caucasion, Native America and Asian descent.

I like your reasons for doing so, which nearly mirror my own. Whenever the situation arises where we are talking about people I capitalize Black and White, because it refers to "specific" people/cultures.

I like the way you answered this question. My answer for using a capital B in Black is because I see my self as Black (noun) and American (adjective). I am special there is no African that has shared my history of Blackness in America and I will not accept that they share my same history. We are special and I never understood when it was decided that I am African American because I did not immigrate.

Luke, how do you reconcile your statement in the article that "people should be allowed to describe themselves, not have descriptions forced on them" with your declaration in response to a writer that "I don't agree. A white person from South Africa is a South African-American". Seems you're trying to force a description upon Caucasians from South Africa.

Response from Luke Visconti, Partner and Cofounder of DiversityInc

The differentiation in the capitilization between Black and White leads one to assume a degree of superiority of one over the other, notwithstanding the logic of your position in this matter. (By the way, what do you do with Hispanic? Latino? Asian?). It just sends the wrong message for little reason. And your position that this will be the policy of the magazine, everyone else be damned, because you set the policy, is also shortsighted. Given the controversial nature of some of the topics aand opinions expressed in your publication, it seems to me that you would not want to lead your readership to believe the magazine is biased or to needlessly offend anyone. Diversity matters - please reconsider your position.

Response from Luke Visconti, Partner and Cofounder of DiversityInc

The only reason I originally accepted the term "African America" was the forced capitalization. Then I met a White person from South Africa who described himself as "African American". SO I guess more correctly we should describe ourselves as Black African Americans, which seems redundant. Now I am back to Black and I capitalize it all the time, as I do White as well.

Response from Luke Visconti, Partner and Cofounder of DiversityInc

Actually, to respect all People, I'd rather capitalise all - We are One

Thanks for answering this often un-asked question, and for explaining your decision not to follow the AP style conventions. For people who pay attention to grammar, punctuation and editing details, it really helps to know the thought process followed, and the reasons for using "Black" as an identifier on this website.

From today forward I am an African American with Indian Descent and that is how I will present myself and here's why. People tend to have their own perceptions about Race, Culture and Color, but once they get past that, they then tend to build their perceptions upon how you as an individual or group perceive yourself. In reading this article it made me realize that an enormous amount of people lump themselves in that one color (Black).We of African Decent seem to use that word to identify us 100% - like we own it, and being black is not who we are by any stretch of the imagination. We are all actually brown of many different shades and come in many different shapes and sizes and that only scratches the surface. So my epiphany is "Black" does not define who we are! It doesn't even come close. Even now that I say the word used in this context, it lacks some substance (I wanted to use the word Integrity, but the only reason I didn't is because I feel you can make a conscious decision to be identified with others just as long as you never loose sight of who you really are), and "Black" will never firmly define who I am ever again.

I am the managing editor of NOIRwoman NewsMag and I have been a newspaper columnist for over 10 years.

I agree 100% with your efforts to demonstrate references to a group of people and culture by using a capital "B" in Black!

I have been breaking that AP rule for years! Keep up the great work!

It took awhile but I'm glad to see an explanation of why Black is not capitalized in mainstream publications, and for the record I asked this question a year ago of Diversity Inc. at that time I noticed it wasn't capitalized here either. I never received a response but, this article was worth the wait. I'm an advid reader of Diversity Inc and applaud the details that you give that other publications tend to leave out. Thank God there's at least one publication striving to maintain integrity in journalism.

Thank you for you clarification on the use of capitals. All rationalizations aside, intended or otherwise, I believe that your use of white and Black clarifies your perspective on diversity as a matter of personal preferences much more succinctly than any other article you publish.

While we don't agree on your position, thanks for making it so clear.

btw, if I personally continue to use the APA version of black and white, does that constitute a "capital offense" in your eyes? :-)

This is the first time I have disagreed with an article in DiversityInc. because I am personally offended. I am White. That means I was born White, and grew up in a White culture. That means I mark the White block on applications when asked. To say I don't consider myself White is to say(to me)you can think for me but what you have done is generalize an entire population and stereotyped White people to say all White people can not appreciate and identify with their White American experience (because they might take it for granted or because it is taboo.) I have grown to understand White priviledge in American society (not that I agree with it! or am an extremist!) and I identify myself racially as White - quite frankly that is the only category I can mark racially because I don't know where my original European people came from! So I don't agree with your take on the issue and several of your "facts" about Whites are assumptions based on stereotypes.

So there you have it. I do have a race - if you want to break it down into race - and that is White.

We are all one race & that's the human race.

You are right on. Simply put, the capitalization denotes a Noun, a specific group of people; as opposed to the general use of the word as an adjective describing a color.

Well said sis! I couldn't have said it any better. I've been capitalizing Black when I describe our people for years!

I capitalize both Black and White because, at least in American culture, they represent more than just two colors found in a box of crayons.

To me, these two terms represent a unique history that is shared between African Americans and Caucasian Americans. In many cases, it represents a philosophy -- a collective philosophy or outlook for some people; an individual philosophy for others.

Given that these philosophies are steeped in an American experience that had, and still has, so much to do with skin color, when discussing people, I think Black and White deserve to begin with capital letters.

Your decision to capitalize black and not white (neither should be) lacks logical consistency, but so does most of what passes for social commentary and political discourse in the United States. In this sense, you are choosing to be part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

"I think that's a good thing--people should be allowed to describe themselves, not have descriptions forced on them"... I completely agree with the above comment. I have co-workers and even friends that get offended because I refuse to identify myself as Black. I know my genetic make up, and was born in South America, and regardless of what I look like to the rest of the world, Black is not the best way to describe me. I have no problem with anyone who chooses to identify themselves that way, but would prefer to not have that description forced on me!

I'm from a predominantly black country originally (Dominica), and have never become comfortable with the use of capitalization for black. I think of myself exactly in the way that white Americans think of themselves, as a human being first and as black second. I think when black Americans call themselves Black they are just honoring the segregationists.

I think your analysis and position on this topic are on point. It also reflects my practice although, depending on the material and audience, I sometimes will capitalize "white" in order to avoid offending Caucasian readers.

Thank you for your thoughtful commentary.

I applaud Luke for taking this approach. I have for a long time made it my business to capitalize the B in Black for the exact same reasons Luke explained. Thank you for educating your readers.