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It's a really interesting story, actually! The question of whether and when to capitalize has been an active one since at least the early 20th century. Here's a
by stevenbedrick 6y ago
It's a really interesting story, actually! The question of whether and when to capitalize has been an active one since at least the early 20th century. Here's a (very) recent Columbia Journalism Review article that discusses it from a stylistic perspective:
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php
And I also thought that this article, about the Brookings Institution's decision to capitalize Black in their reports, had some interesting historical context:
https://www.brookings.edu/research/brookingscapitalizesblack/ https://www.brookings.edu/research/brookingscapitalizesblack...
- neonate 6y agoCapitalizing White seems extremely weird, though, and somehow emblematic of how we're sliding backwards into a racialized consciousness even while trying (and hopefully succeeding) to step forwards toward equality.
- erik_seaberg 6y agoThis. The words "white" and "black" are not proper names of places, and they aren't honorifics. To say I'm "White" would be like saying I'm "Fat" or "Tired".
- neonate 6y agoI'm not sure that argument works grammatically because we capitalize things that aren't names of places, but I agree with you in the sense that it's the feeling I got while reading the article, and it was strangely creepy.
- pessimizer 6y agoBut they're also not physical qualities, they're ethnic classifications. I don't know any others that aren't capitalized. People aren't actually colored black or white, and you can have the same coloring as a person who is black or white ane be neither black or white. I'm not a big fan of the capitalization, but it's reasonable. Are "Aboriginal" or "Indigenous" place names or honorifics?
- azernik 6y agoIn the American context, they are proper names of ethnic groups.