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> "white" isn't capitalized because it doesn't bear as much similarities to those words It is precisely the same as black. The mental gymnastics on display her
by SvenMarquardt 5y ago
> "white" isn't capitalized because it doesn't bear as much similarities to those words
It is precisely the same as black. The mental gymnastics on display here are astonishing.
- etchalon 5y agoIt's a replacement for the term "African American", which is the best way to think of it and why it's capitalized. A good number of major publications have posted explanations for the editorial change: https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-cultures-race-and-ethnicity-us-news-ap-top-news-7e36c00c5af0436abc09e051261fff1f https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-cultures-race-and-e... https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/05/insider/capitalized-black.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/05/insider/capitalized-black...
- JPKab 5y agoRespectfully, I view these explanations as a retcon. Race is a social construct and the reason these newspapers chose not to capitalize white was because it's historically been capitalized by white nationalists. It's also historically been capitalized by black nationalists. That's what ethno-fascists do. They reduce reality down to singular dimensions and obsess about them as they tell everyone to blame their problems on that reason. Like they did in Germany they point to a group in that case the German Jews that is extremely culturally similar to another group that has less money per capita and then tell them that the explanation for these folks having more is they've taken it from you. They spend decades creating an entire ideology and mythology around this notion. Sound familiar? I first noticed the capitalization of black when I was in college in the early 2000s and was enrolled in several black studies courses for my electives. A few extreme radicals there insisted on capitalizing black because they spent so much time around black nationalists. I'm glad these journalistic institutions found a compelling explanation for doing what they were being told to do by activist groups. It's absurd and ridiculous and it looks like religion. What's next are they going to demand we all capitalize God too, like the oppressive evangelical churches of my childhood made me do? Those same churches also told me that I couldn't use the word lucky and I had to use the word blessed instead because that's what identitarians do: They coerce your speech so they can coerce your thoughts. I know this was a long rant but it's pretty awful to see this stuff get defended with anything looking like logic when it's absolutely not.
- charlesu 5y agoBlack when capitalized doesn’t refer to a race. It refers to an ethnicity. It’s not a retcon to capitalize ethnicities. We’ve been capitalizing ethnicities for a while now.
- etchalon 5y agoYou can view them as a retcon, but your argument isn't engaging with their explanations seriously. It just dismisses them, invents a motivation and then ascribes malice to them.
- KittenInABox 5y agoI'm confused by this logic, because by this logic capitalizing "German Jews" is ethno-fascist, or "Asian". Am I missing something? Are Asian-Americans ethno-fascist?
- wyclif 5y agoYes, the point is that "black" is no more a cultural identity than "white" is. There are black Americans, black Englishmen, black Africans, etc.
- charlesu 5y agoBlack is an overloaded term. It’s a race and an ethnicity. If you were to write about black people in Africa, it would be nonsensical to capitalize it because black doesn’t communicate any shared identity in that context. The right granularity is national, ethnic, or tribal. But Black is a cultural identity in the context of the United States. Blacks, or African-Americans, are ethnically distinct and have shared history, culture, and language. In 1840, almost all blacks in America were slaves. In 1950, almost all blacks were descendants of slaves. At either time, almost all of them would have spoken English as their first language. At either time, most would have been born in the American South. Most importantly, at either time would have identified with each other on the basis of those shared traits. Whites, on the other hand, are comprised of distinct ethnic groups and had their own communities throughout American history. Go to any major American city and you’ll find neighborhoods that are historically Italian, Irish, or German.
- wyclif 5y agoI disagree fundamentally with your take because I approach this subject academically instead of in pop culture terms. Both blacks and whites have distinct ethnic groups that are more granular. Just as whites are ethnically English, Irish, German, Scandinavian, Italian, etc., blacks are ethnically Akan, Cuban, Caribbean, Abyssian, Fulani, Zulu, Oromo, and more.