Why is ‘Black’ capitalized?
Question: Please explain the grammatical basis for the capitalized usage of the words brown, white and Black in the same context. This distinction is used throughout articles in USA Today and the Asheville Citizen Times. Please see some of this usage in your article on the school board. Why is “Black” in upper case in the Citizen Times and “white” is lower case?
Answer: This was an adjustment for us, too, but it does make sense. Like most newspapers in America, we follow Associated Press “style,” which is a compilation of grammatical and spelling rules designed to assure uniformity in language usage.
Last July, AP changed its style on “black” when referring to race to the upper case “Black,” while leaving “white” lower case. John Daniszewski, AP’s vice president for standards, explained the reasoning behind the shift in a July 2020 post titled, “Why we will lowercase white.”
“There was clear desire and reason to capitalize Black,” Daniszewski wrote. “Most notably, people who are Black have strong historical and cultural commonalities, even if they are from different parts of the world and even if they now live in different parts of the world. That includes the shared experience of discrimination due solely to the color of one’s skin.”
Less support exists for capitalizing “white,” Daniszewski stated.
“White people generally do not share the same history and culture, or the experience of being discriminated against because of skin color,” he continued. “In addition, we are a global news organization and in much of the world there is considerable disagreement, ambiguity and confusion about whom the term includes.”
“We agree that white people’s skin color plays into systemic inequalities and injustices, and we want our journalism to robustly explore those problems,” Daniszewski wrote. “But capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs.”
He also acknowledged some criticism about the shift.
“Some have expressed the belief that if we don’t capitalize white, we are being inconsistent and discriminating against white people or, conversely, that we are implying that white is the default,” Daniszewski wrote. “We also recognize the argument that capitalizing the term could pull white people more fully into issues and discussions of race and equality. We will closely watch how usage and thought evolves, and will periodically review our decision.”
As far as usage of the the term “brown” in relation to race, Daniszewski explained that as the AP Stylebook “currently directs, we will continue to avoid the broad and imprecise term brown in racial, ethnic or cultural references. If using the term is necessary as part of a direct quotation, we will continue to use the lowercase.”
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