The AP reports the reason for last month's decision to capitalize "Black":
There was clear desire and reason to capitalize Black. 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.
So why not capitalize "White" as well?
HERE's the AP style guide's explanation.
Recently, I was opining to a friend about the miserable condition of what passes as "journalism" these days – particularly, and especially print. Proper nouns such as "Internet" (the name of thing), the dangling participle... he said recently, and a veritable host of other grammatical faux pas which not only make comprehension difficult, but nigh impossible.
ReplyDeleteThe AP's decision reflects poorly upon the group once renown as wordsmiths. As for me, if I capitalize a color to denote a racial or ethnic group such as Black, then I do the same for all other similar groups, i.e., the Red man, the Yellow man, the White man, etc.
Now, when it comes to little green men... well, we'd all better pack our bags, and beat a hasty retreat.
But seriously, I loathe capitalizing White Supremacist to denote membership in, or adherence to a set of racist ideas, though I sincerely think it a proper noun, descriptive of something unique, such as the Ku Klux Klan. Although, when writing about specific groups such as Neo-Nazis, I typically do not capitalize the concept of white supremacy.
And, as one reads the AP's justification for their actions, it seems to me to be antithetical to the very idea they attempt to defend. I mean, when they write a sentence that states "White people generally do not share the same history and culture, or the experience..." it seems to be the stereotypical antithetical apotheosis of the very idea they're promoting.
But, I digress.
Or, do I?
Que sera, sera.