AP Says It Will Capitalize Black But Not White

[Maxirad]

The Associated Press will not be capitalizing the “w” in white when discussing racial matters.

AP Says It Will Capitalize Black But Not White

 

[RhodesianSon]

They did it. They solved racism.

 

[Mrchatsworth]

A group of people with majority white affluent educations in a majority white affluent career will decide how a group of people by color shall be addressed and capitalized. It’s a good thing we have them!

 

[Irishmom2]

It’s so ridiculous. Capitalize both, or none, but not just one. Their reasoning is just pandering and virtue signaling.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Since I don’t write for any media using the AP guide, I could not care less what they do or don’t capitalize.

 

[stpurl]

Funny, isn’t it? Over the past years I’ve noticed that we no longer capitalize He and Him when we’re referring to God; our missals and Bibles within the last 20 plus years are all lower case unless the pronoun starts a sentence. . . But we ‘have’ to capitalize “Black” (not necessarily ‘Brown” yet), and the world which we are constantly told is ‘shades of gray’ is being very clearly defined as “Black” and ‘white’ with regard to race.

 

[JulianN]

Over the past years I’ve noticed that we no longer capitalize He and Him when we’re referring to God; our missals and Bibles within the last 20 plus years are all lower case unless the pronoun starts a sentence. . .

That’s because capitalizing the pronouns for God, besides being super distracting, is a Protestant innovation from which most Catholic publishers have turned away.

 

[CoffeeFanatic]

You should. Propaganda is powerful.

 

[F_Marturana]

Is it? I still do I learned that in Catholic grammar school, 40ish years ago.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Sorry, I don’t buy into “should” statements that people other than God try to put on me.
Media’s antics are a low-pri for me.

 

[JulianN]

Is it? I still do I learned that in Catholic grammar school, 40ish years ago.

It’s been around quite a while. Fortunately, it’s mostly disappearing.

If you look at, say, the 1899 version of the Douay-Rheims Bible, you’ll see that there are no caps.

 

[adamhovey1988]

That’s kind of silly. So is calling American Indians Native American, though. Native American name controversy
By the way, I fail to see how this is going to bring about racial equality. Call me old-fashioned, but pointing out external differences (and perceived cultural difference) is going to stop racism. or they could just not use capital letters at all. or correct punctuation@3 or speling.

 

[JulianN]

So…are they essentially saying that all black people are more less alike? That seems, shall I say, a bit racist.

And is diametrically opposed to much current thinking on racism, which aims to educate Whites that they are members of a race, rather than “race” being something that only applies to those with dark skin. As if white is ‘standard’ and everyone else is defined in relation to whiteness.

That’s why I think the AP decision was misguided.

 

[Bithynian]

a Protestant innovation

I don’t think reverential capitalisation in English was ever conceived of as a distinctively ‘Protestant’ (or even ‘Catholic’) characteristic. The practice seems to have arisen during the late 18th or early 19th century, and both Catholic and Protestant literature widely used it. A good example is St Newman: both his The Arians of the Fourth Century (1833 in his Anglican period) and An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845 in his Catholic period) capitalise pronouns referring to God. But the practice seems to varied substantially as a lot of Protestant-associated literature didn’t seem to employ it (e.g. the ASV NT of 1900).

I do agree that it’s incredibly distracting (at least for me) when reading, and I’m glad the practice has declined.

 

[Lea101]

So…are they essentially saying that all black people are more less alike? That seems, shall I say, a bit racist.

They could be referring to the fact that white people are more likely to be able to trace their lineage while most black people couldn’t due to slavery. Hence, they have their own distinct culture that’s not necessarily tied to an African culture as they don’t know where they’re from. This is different from white people’s heritage anyway.

So I don’t think that part is racist at all. Saying X has a shared culture and history more so than Y isn’t saying they’re all alike. The capitalising thing is just silly.

 

[JulianN]

I don’t think reverential capitalisation in English was ever conceived of as a distinctively ‘Protestant’ (or even ‘Catholic’) characteristic.

It definitely was used by both, but appears to have begun with an early standard revised version of the Bible based on the KJV. In any event, I’ve always found it more distracting than reverential, and since it’s not used in the original source documents, I’m happy to see it falling out of common use.

 

[stpurl]

A Protestant innovation? While I’m not fond of Wiki, and while I am aware that standardized English spelling and punctuation including capital letters was of a relatively late date, the very Protestant first King James Bible did not capitalize He and Him for God. So. . .I’m not quite sure why you’re stating that capitalizing i.e. reverential pronouns was a Protestant innovation?

 

[JulianN]

So. . .I’m not quite sure why you’re stating that capitalizing i.e. reverential pronouns was a Protestant innovation?

Because its earliest use appears to be in a Protestant standard revised version. It is definitely not part of the source documents.

 

[DaveBj]

The Associated Press will not be capitalizing the “w” in white when discussing racial matters.

And they say there’s no such thing as systemic racism.

But I agree with @Tis_Bearself – this falls squarely into my don’t-care bucket.

D

 

[otjm]

A group of people with majority white affluent educations in a majority white affluent career will decide how a group of people by color shall be addressed and capitalized. It’s a good thing we have them!

That, and those elite school graduates who have arrived at the pinnacle of “journalism” with their large salaries and perks will decide for the hoi polloi how the rest of us unwashed deplorable working slobs, and those union members who turn a wrench or weld a seam, and those “servants of the rich” shall be referred to.

I would say there is a certain je ne sais quoi in the announcement; but that is not quite right; there is an uppitty white privileged class stench of virtue signaling which has absolutely zero to do with solving racist attitudes.

And their attitude that whites cannot be discriminated against is a farce of those who live in a bubble; go where you are somewhere between a minority and an extreme minority and the shoe changes feet.

Frankly, I don’t care whether they capitalize Black or use lower case white. Neither has a single thing to do with changing hearts.