Associated Press will capitalise 'Black' but not 'white'

[Metaphor]

https://apnews.com/7e36c00c5af0436abc09e051261fff1f

NEW YORK (AP) — After changing its usage rules last month to capitalize the word “Black” when used in the context of race and culture, The Associated Press on Monday said it would not do the same for “white.”


The AP said white people in general have much less shared history and culture, and don’t have the experience of being discriminated against because of skin color.

I find that to be a strange reason to capitalise one and not the other, even if it were true. Odd also that racists like Robin DiAngelo think that white people indeed have a culture in common with each other--whiteness.

Protests following the death of George Floyd, which led to discussions of policing and Confederate symbols, also prompted many news organizations to examine their own practices and staffing. The Associated Press, whose Stylebook is widely influential in the industry, announced June 19 it would make Black uppercase.


In some ways, the decision over “white” has been more ticklish. The National Association of Black Journalists and some Black scholars have said white should be capitalized, too.



“We agree that white people’s skin color plays into systemic inequalities and injustices, and we want our journalism to robustly explore these problems,” John Daniszewski, the AP’s vice president for standards, said in a memo to staff Monday. “But capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs.”

So, AP is letting what white supremacists do shape their policy?

Columbia Journalism Review, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, NBC News and Chicago Tribune are among the organizations that have recently said they would capitalize Black but have not done so for white.


“White doesn’t represent a shared culture and history in the way Black does,” The New York Times said on July 5 in explaining its decision.


CNN, Fox News and The San Diego Union-Tribune said they will give white the uppercase, noting it was consistent with Black, Asian, Latino and other ethnic groups. Fox cited NABJ’s advice.


CBS News said it would capitalize white, although not when referring to white supremacists, white nationalists or white privilege.


Some proponents believe that keeping white lowercase is actually anti-Black, saying it perpetuates the idea that whites are the default race.

This makes sense to me. White people are not the default background state from which other ethnicities 'deviate', though the Woke work against themselves when they consider any non-white person "diverse", as if they were delicate exotic flowers.

“Whiteness remains invisible, and as is the case with all power structures, its invisibility does crucial work to maintain its power,” wrote Eve Ewing, a sociologist of race and education at the University of Chicago who said she’s changed her mind on the issue over the past two years.


“In maintaining the pretense of its invisibility, whiteness maintains the pretense of its inevitability, and its innocence,” she wrote on the website Nora.


Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosophy professor at New York University, wrote in the Atlantic that capitalizing white would take power away from racists, since their similar use “would no longer be a provocative defiance of the norm.”


The AP checked with a variety of experts and sources in making its decision.


“We will closely watch how usage and thought evolves, and will periodically review our decision,” Daniszewski said.

In a psychology textbook I have from my undergraduate degree two decades ago, they've capitalised White and Black. Then there was a long stretch of time where I saw only 'black' capitalised. Perhaps we are about to come full circle.

 

[ruby sparks]

Capitalising one racial group because they experience racism, but not another group because they don't, makes no sense to me either. Being discriminated against or not is what defines a group?

And obviously, both groups experience racism, it is just that it is a lot worse for one, especially in a certain country.

And as you say, white people are not a non-subgroup, not the norm from which other subgroups deviate.

 

[KeepTalking]

It doesn't make much sense to me to capitalize 'white' or 'black', though I do capitalize 'African American' as it just seems more proper. The AP is free to institute whatever rules they like, however, so this doesn't really matter to me.

 

[Worldtraveller]

Show me on this doll where the AP hurt you.

 

[Gun Nut]

Capitalising one racial group because they experience racism, but not another group because they don't, makes no sense to me either. Being discriminated against or not is what defines a group?

And obviously, both groups experience racism, it is just that it is a lot worse for one, especially in a certain country.

And as you say, white people are not a non-subgroup, not the norm from which other subgroups deviate.

I am "white" and I grew up in a mostly black neighborhood and school system, and I was racially targeted and discriminated against violently EVERY DAY for years of my life.
When referring to me as White, you may capitalize it since this "white" person has been more of a victim of racial discrimination than any black person I ever personally met... i.e. i never met a black guy that was beat up, robbed, chased, harassed, etc.. by a gang of white people because they were black. ever... much less one or more of those things EVERY DAY for 8 years.

I am owed reparations if anyone I ever known is... and I will take that capital W. thank you very much for comprehending that racism is like tracer rounds... they work both ways.

 

[Elixir]

"Associated Press will capitalise 'Black' but not 'white'"

Call the waaambulance. You can cry all the way to the bank.

 

[repoman]

Ok, so it seems like hyper rich whites are allowing middle class and poor whites to be the scapegoats.

Smart move I guess and they own the media so it will work.

 

[Worldtraveller]

Capitalising one racial group because they experience racism, but not another group because they don't, makes no sense to me either. Being discriminated against or not is what defines a group?

And obviously, both groups experience racism, it is just that it is a lot worse for one, especially in a certain country.

And as you say, white people are not a non-subgroup, not the norm from which other subgroups deviate.

I am "white" and I grew up in a mostly black neighborhood and school system, and I was racially targeted and discriminated against violently EVERY DAY for years of my life.
When referring to me as White, you may capitalize it since this "white" person has been more of a victim of racial discrimination than any black person I ever personally met... i.e. i never met a black guy that was beat up, robbed, chased, harassed, etc.. by a gang of white people because they were black. ever... much less one or more of those things EVERY DAY for 8 years.

I am owed reparations if anyone I ever known is... and I will take that capital W. thank you very much for comprehending that racism is like tracer rounds... they work both ways.

Sounds to me when we we refer to you as white, we should spell it 'cracker', but thanks for playing.

 

[Gun Nut]

Capitalising one racial group because they experience racism, but not another group because they don't, makes no sense to me either. Being discriminated against or not is what defines a group?

And obviously, both groups experience racism, it is just that it is a lot worse for one, especially in a certain country.

And as you say, white people are not a non-subgroup, not the norm from which other subgroups deviate.

I am "white" and I grew up in a mostly black neighborhood and school system, and I was racially targeted and discriminated against violently EVERY DAY for years of my life.
When referring to me as White, you may capitalize it since this "white" person has been more of a victim of racial discrimination than any black person I ever personally met... i.e. i never met a black guy that was beat up, robbed, chased, harassed, etc.. by a gang of white people because they were black. ever... much less one or more of those things EVERY DAY for 8 years.

I am owed reparations if anyone I ever known is... and I will take that capital W. thank you very much for comprehending that racism is like tracer rounds... they work both ways.

Sounds to me when we we refer to you as white, we should spell it 'cracker', but thanks for playing.

So you are saying that only black people are capable of being victims of racism. How naive... and on the face of it, obtusely stupid.

 

[thebeave]

Seems like a bit of a slippery slope thing to me. How many years away are we until whites have to sit at the back of the bus? Though I'm sure there are plenty of self loathing whites who would welcome that policy.

 

[Gun Nut]

Capitalising one racial group because they experience racism, but not another group because they don't, makes no sense to me either. Being discriminated against or not is what defines a group?

And obviously, both groups experience racism, it is just that it is a lot worse for one, especially in a certain country.

And as you say, white people are not a non-subgroup, not the norm from which other subgroups deviate.

I am "white" and I grew up in a mostly black neighborhood and school system, and I was racially targeted and discriminated against violently EVERY DAY for years of my life.
When referring to me as White, you may capitalize it since this "white" person has been more of a victim of racial discrimination than any black person I ever personally met... i.e. i never met a black guy that was beat up, robbed, chased, harassed, etc.. by a gang of white people because they were black. ever... much less one or more of those things EVERY DAY for 8 years.

I am owed reparations if anyone I ever known is... and I will take that capital W. thank you very much for comprehending that racism is like tracer rounds... they work both ways.

Sounds to me when we we refer to you as white, we should spell it 'cracker', but thanks for playing.

A simple, equivalent word substitution...

Sounds to me when we we refer to you as white black, we should spell it 'cracker' 'nigger'.

anyone that speaks this way is a complete piece of shit.

 

[Emily Lake]

I'm curious whether or not they will capitalize black when it's referring to someone recently immigrated from Surname, who doesn't have the shared history with which they're defining black as a proper noun.

Anecdote: My dad never liked being referred to as "African American", he found it insulting because he felt it cast him as only provisionally American, despite his ~50 years of military and government service. Plus, he has no direct African ties of which he is aware, given that records of his enslaved ancestry weren't well kept. He was more inclined to think that the gentleman a few doors down, who moved here from Kenya, would more aptly fit the description of "African American".

He didn't object to "black", but he usually retorted by saying he preferred to be called "mister".

 

[Gun Nut]

I'm curious whether or not they will capitalize black when it's referring to someone recently immigrated from Surname, who doesn't have the shared history with which they're defining black as a proper noun.

Anecdote: My dad never liked being referred to as "African American", he found it insulting because he felt it cast him as only provisionally American, despite his ~50 years of military and government service. Plus, he has no direct African ties of which he is aware, given that records of his enslaved ancestry weren't well kept. He was more inclined to think that the gentleman a few doors down, who moved here from Kenya, would more aptly fit the description of "African American".

He didn't object to "black", but he usually retorted by saying he preferred to be called "mister".

good point.. and what if they came from anywhere around Angola, then their ancestors may very well have been slave traders themselves. American, English, and Portuguese supported the beginning of the slave trade by purchasing the black Africans that were captured by rival tribes of black Africans and offered for sale as forced labor. In the US, it was the Tobacco fields in virginia the very first black slave traders arrived with their human cargo (20 of them).
So reparations will be tough to distribute... we need to find the "bad black heritage" and make them pay the "victimized black heritage" for the fallout of their African tribal warfare that spilled over to the young and impressionable US.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Capitalising one racial group because they experience racism, but not another group because they don't, makes no sense to me either. Being discriminated against or not is what defines a group?

And obviously, both groups experience racism, it is just that it is a lot worse for one, especially in a certain country.

And as you say, white people are not a non-subgroup, not the norm from which other subgroups deviate.

I am "white" and I grew up in a mostly black neighborhood and school system, and I was racially targeted and discriminated against violently EVERY DAY for years of my life.
When referring to me as White, you may capitalize it since this "white" person has been more of a victim of racial discrimination than any black person I ever personally met... i.e. i never met a black guy that was beat up, robbed, chased, harassed, etc.. by a gang of white people because they were black. ever... much less one or more of those things EVERY DAY for 8 years.

I am owed reparations if anyone I ever known is... and I will take that capital W. thank you very much for comprehending that racism is like tracer rounds... they work both ways.

Maybe they just didn't like Dutch people. (<- baselessly assuming you are Dutch).

In general, white is a clump of a lot of divisible idenities (Irish, Scottish, Serbia, Slovenian, Trump). Black, generally, is not divisible. Now, you might then mention Asian, but I'd need you to stop yourself because Asian is quite divisible as well, and I wouldn't be able to explain the distinction then.

 

[Emily Lake]

In general, white is a clump of a lot of divisible idenities (Irish, Scottish, Serbia, Slovenian, Trump). Black, generally, is not divisible. Now, you might then mention Asian, but I'd need you to stop yourself because Asian is quite divisible as well, and I wouldn't be able to explain the distinction then.

How are you figuring that black is not divisible? I mean, they don't actually all look alike, you know. And there are a LOT of cultures throughout the world that are composed of dark-skinned people, with a considerable variation in tradition and social mores. Even with in the US, there is a lot of diversity around people who have Haitian, Jamaican, or Creole heritage, not to mention relatively recent immigrant populations from various African countries, who have brought their rich cultures with them.

Hell, if nothing else, a predominantly black community in Mississippi is quite distinct from a community in Chicago, or in Harlem, or in LA.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

In general, white is a clump of a lot of divisible idenities (Irish, Scottish, Serbia, Slovenian, Trump). Black, generally, is not divisible. Now, you might then mention Asian, but I'd need you to stop yourself because Asian is quite divisible as well, and I wouldn't be able to explain the distinction then.

How are you figuring that black is not divisible? I mean, they don't actually all look alike, you know. And there are a LOT of cultures throughout the world that are composed of dark-skinned people, with a considerable variation in tradition and social mores. Even with in the US, there is a lot of diversity around people who have Haitian, Jamaican, or Creole heritage, not to mention relatively recent immigrant populations from various African countries, who have brought their rich cultures with them.

Hell, if nothing else, a predominantly black community in Mississippi is quite distinct from a community in Chicago, or in Harlem, or in LA.

Okay, you are aware of American history and the context my comments were clearly aimed at, and that being African American generally means you have no idea where from Africa you are from?

 

[ideologyhunter]

Didn't this all start at Treasury, anyhow? Mnuchin gave up the capital W in exchange for first claim on wages, promotions, inherited wealth, tax shelters, and stock options. I b'lieve that's what they call win/win, with a lower case w.

 

[Gun Nut]

Capitalising one racial group because they experience racism, but not another group because they don't, makes no sense to me either. Being discriminated against or not is what defines a group?

And obviously, both groups experience racism, it is just that it is a lot worse for one, especially in a certain country.

And as you say, white people are not a non-subgroup, not the norm from which other subgroups deviate.

I am "white" and I grew up in a mostly black neighborhood and school system, and I was racially targeted and discriminated against violently EVERY DAY for years of my life.
When referring to me as White, you may capitalize it since this "white" person has been more of a victim of racial discrimination than any black person I ever personally met... i.e. i never met a black guy that was beat up, robbed, chased, harassed, etc.. by a gang of white people because they were black. ever... much less one or more of those things EVERY DAY for 8 years.

I am owed reparations if anyone I ever known is... and I will take that capital W. thank you very much for comprehending that racism is like tracer rounds... they work both ways.

Maybe they just didn't like Dutch people. (<- baselessly assuming you are Dutch).

Pretty close.
My Father's side of my family came here when the news of the US Civil War made it to Hungary. He Immigrated here and joined the Union Army to fight against slavery in the New World.
My Mother's side of the family escaped the persecution of the Jews in Russia during the 1920's
over the following century my family has had builders, doctors, teachers, and lawyers contributing to the health of our nation.

Been here a while. Done some good things.

My family heritage and history of being directly involved in the freeing of black slaves in the US didn't have an impact on the black people that persecuted me throughout my youth.

 

[ruby sparks]

I'm curious whether or not they will capitalize black when it's referring to someone recently immigrated from Surname, who doesn't have the shared history with which they're defining black as a proper noun.

This, to me, is partly why the reasoning is problematic, in saying (more or less explicitly if I recall correctly) that black people can all be lumped together as having a common culture or heritage.

The other part is what I previously mentioned, that the new approach, possibly inadvertently, harks back to problematic paradigms where white was the norm from which other racial subgroups deviate, but not a subgroup of itself.

 

[ruby sparks]

Black, generally, is not divisible.

You think that? Wow.