Submitted by garfieldgrowls t3_11do4jk in rva
Diet_Coke t1_jacgblb wrote
Reply to comment by eziam in Parents, teachers question Holton elementary’s leadership, environment by garfieldgrowls
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php
>we capitalize Black, and not white, when referring to groups in racial, ethnic, or cultural terms. For many people, Black reflects a shared sense of identity and community. White carries a different set of meanings; capitalizing the word in this context risks following the lead of white supremacists.
...
>Sarah Glover, a past president of the National Association of Black Journalists, wrote in a recent piece for the New York Amsterdam News, a historically Black weekly, that “capitalizing the ‘B’ in Black should become standard use to describe people, culture, art and communities.” After all, she pointed out, “We already capitalize Asian, Hispanic, African American and Native American.”
dovetc t1_jacmy3t wrote
>After all, she pointed out, “We already capitalize Asian, Hispanic, African American and Native American.”
Then the obvious move is to capitalize White as well.
>capitalizing the word in this context risks following the lead of white supremacists.
Nonsense. White supremacists drink water too, but that doesn't mean water consumption risks following their lead.
[deleted] t1_jacnzcx wrote
[deleted]
dovetc t1_jacoip9 wrote
It's an adjective that describes a person's race. Same as black.
"That white guy" or "That black guy" - They're used in exactly the same way. They should follow the same rules of grammar.
[deleted] t1_jacozzh wrote
[deleted]
dovetc t1_jacpqvl wrote
There's no logical basis for black to be a proper noun but white not be one. The logic from the AP is ridiculous:
>For many people, Black reflects a shared sense of identity and community
A black guy from Richmond and a black guy from Equatorial Guinea don't share a sense of identity and community any more than a white guy from Richmond and a white guy from Latvia.
The terms describe race, not culture. There isn't any good reason for them to have different grammar.
Diet_Coke t1_jacu3x8 wrote
>And, as my CJR colleague Alexandria Neason told me recently, “I view the term Black as both a recognition of an ethnic identity in the States that doesn’t rely on hyphenated Americanness (and is more accurate than African American, which suggests recent ties to the continent) and is also transnational and inclusive of our Caribbean [and] Central/South American siblings.” To capitalize Black, in her view, is to acknowledge that slavery “deliberately stripped” people forcibly shipped overseas “of all other ethnic/national ties.” She added, “African American is not wrong, and some prefer it, but if we are going to capitalize Asian and South Asian and Indigenous, for example, groups that include myriad ethnic identities united by shared race and geography and, to some degree, culture, then we also have to capitalize Black.”
dovetc t1_jacumo7 wrote
So then black Africans aren't Black. They're just black. Yes?
Diet_Coke t1_jadv519 wrote
That is true, in that case you would probably describe their nationalities differently though. If you were in Africa you might say that Kenyan guy, not that black guy. Just like if you were in China, you might say that Korean guy not that Asian guy to describe someone.
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