Also reads: Black, African American, Black women, Ask the White Guy, bigots

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 describes what to capitalize and what not to capitalize (among other rules of grammar).

To find companies that value Black employees, read The 2009 DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for African Americans List. You can also search for jobs on DiversityInc.com's Career Center from companies on that list: AT&T, Target and Altria.

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."

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