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© Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.AP changes writing style to capitalize 'b' in Black
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HBJ
How long until President Troll tweets something capitalizing the 'W' in white?
Yubaru
Personally speaking, this should have been a given since like forever, and I personally can not recall ever using a lower case "b" when writing something about Black people!
Glad to see them finally get on board!
Jimizo
Probably when he finds it on the net. His trolling is rarely his own creation and usually picked up from trash he finds floating around the net.
sourpuss
Comparing it to Asian Americans seems to undermine the logic a bit. African America would be more of an equivalent. In fact, back in the 80s, Black was on its way out.
sourpuss
*African American
Jonathan Prin
black men
The Blacks
The Whites
white men
In general, an adjective is capitalized if its meaning is "pertaining to X", where X is some specific person, place, language, or organized group. Most capitalized adjectives are derived from proper nouns; for example, the proper adjective American is derived from the proper noun America.
Haven't people been to school ?
Jonathan Prin
The Black people
US police have a history of violence against black people. Will it ever stop?
Source : The Guardian
Reckless
I have always considered myself an Olive.
Rolf Anderson
Distinguishing people because of their skin rather than their character=racism.
Farmboy
So now we’ll have a Black, a white, and an Indigenous person all in a classroom discussing the poetry of e e cummings? I Understand the Intent, but english Grammar teachers will be pulling their Hair out.
noriahojanen
How would you address people whose personal name is Black (no joke, I personally know one...racially she's not Black)? It's rather confusing...
The Avenger
My term for African-Americans is "African-Americans." Both words are capitalized because each one is a proper noun. How you can justify capitalizing Black but not white or White but not black is incomprehensible to me.
kyronstavic
Let's just be consistent across all races then, and capitalise the first letter of every colour when using it to describe someone's appearance. Otherwise, it would be racist.
While we're at it, why not take it a step step further and apply it to all adjectives so nobody can be perceived as unimportant?
e.g., a White kid of Size, a Bespectacled Racially Ambiguous girl, and Elderly Black gentleman with an Ingrown Toenail. The possibilities are endless.
Patricia Yarrow
Does this mean that I (Norwegian extraction) am now White?
Ah_so
I once knew a black guy from Trinidad whose surname was Blackman.
Ironically this name is usually associated with white people.
Harry_Gatto
Unless you are a Norwegian Blue.
Reckless
Nothing whiter than Norway.
Blacklabel
They said white can’t become White because they really concerned about impacts outside the USA or something
so it’s just correct usage of language for Black, not political at all? This seems to show otherwise. Now white has to wait 1 month for the “world” to form an opinion.
HonestDictator
I refuse being called "black" in any fashion. I never have been, and never really seen any real human being the color black in my life. I've never seen a real human being the color white in my entire life.
Simple test for anyone wondering what tone their skin is. Take a 25-50+ box of crayons or a set of any colored pencils and hold each color next to your skin. I guarantee you 100% nobody on this planet will ever match the official color black or white... You'll all find you're closer to some other color/tone which requires using more than one color to get an accurate color to match your actual skin tone.
Another thing to think about... WHO DETERMINED and when did they determine that we should call each other WHITE, BLACK, RED, YELLOW??? Ask any artist if they believe that any of those colors effectively describe the skin tone of a human beings ethnicity and you'll hear a resounding "no" .
Humanity never even used these terms until roughly about the colonialist eras. Before then it was only nations and tribes used to describe each other. "Color" didn't matter much.
I identify as HUMAN first and foremost, followed by my nationality as American. And the kind of person I am and how I present myself and treat others should be determined before anything else.
The only time my ethnicity should be described or even mentioned is in the event someone needs to describe what I look like to someone who has never seen me before and that is in the event they don't have a physical picture of me to present in the first place.
Look in the mirror and ask yourself, "Does the color of my skin determine who I am or my self worth?"
If it the the ultimate basis of who you are and the value of your mind starts with your skin tone instead of your behavior and how you treat others, how pathetic is that as a measure of a human being?
arrestpaul
It appears that this particular "One Black scholar" is not much of a scholar. Juneteenth (June 19th) had only represented the day that slaves in Texas were declared to be free under the specific conditions set forth in Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
The last enslaved African Americans learned they were free with the ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865. On December 18, 1865, Secretary of State William H. Seward proclaimed its adoption.
kurisupisu
There will be a Black Party soon, I’m not sure that will be just for Blacks and not Whites though?
Yubaru
It was but then the realization that the term is incorrect, as Africa is a continent full of many different countries and cultures, and American's are typically more specific when identifying their ancestry .
Yrral
Kurisupisu,their was the Black Panther party, who fostered change in America in the 60's and 70's
Yubaru
This is just choosing to be intellectually lazy and ignorant! If you are "addressing" you should darn well know it wouldn't matter one bit!
It's only "confusing" if you choose it to be so! This is all about WRITTEN English.
Ike-in-Tokyo-from-89
Does this refer to Dravidians, Melanesians and Aboriginal Australians?
I hope it doesn’t refer to some “super Allies”.
Ike-in-Tokyo-from-89
Wouldn’t it have to admit Whites by law?
Reckless
I was in a women's studies class in a liberal US university back in the day and the instructor was a very considerate feminist white woman (very nice) and her TA was a black young woman. During one class the professor said something like Afro-American, and the TA in front of everyone corrected her it is African-American. It is very confusing and each person has their own opinion of how to be called, so many just avoid it by avoiding social situations with such persons. At the same university I worked as a waiter with all black staff and they basically in a friendly manner called me white boy, whitey and the negative word was cracker.
zichi
Mhite with an upside down W.