[Jayvee]

I notice that printed media, in general, do not capitalize the term ‘Black’ when referring to African Americans — in variance to other races, ethnicities or geographical groupings. For instance, it is not unusual to see a sentence like, ‘Participants included Caucasians, Latinos, Asians and blacks.’ Conversely, even a reference to ‘Mid-Easterners’ is typically capitalized. Is racism the reason for not capitalizing ‘Black’ when the word is used to reference an entire race of people?

User Detail :  

Name : Jayvee, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Baptist, Age : 47, City : Oakland, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Architect, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Seamus28228]

I’ve always thought ‘Black’ and ‘White’ were pretty informal designations of people and that ‘African-American’ and ‘Caucasian’ generally are the proper terms which are usually capitalised. I think the latter two have more political usage while the former have social usage which doesn’t seem as ‘important’ to many people. I do know that capitalising Black is becoming popular in many Black magazines. Some of those Black magazines, especially those that deal with rap music, don’t even capitalise ‘White!’

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Name : Seamus28228, Gender : M, Age : 23, City : Charlestown, State : MA, Country : United Kingdom, Occupation : Construction, Social class : Lower class, 

[MElissa20781]

Iv noticed them same for white people soo

User Detail :  

Name : MElissa20781, Gender : F, Age : 21, City : Antioch, State : CA, Country : United States, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Katrina M.]

The words ‘black’ and ‘white’ are common nouns, and therefore are not capitalized; to do so is incorrect grammar. Conversely, Caucasian, African American, Middle Eastern, etc. are proper nouns and must be capitalized. the reason is grammar, not racism.

User Detail :  

Name : Katrina M., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Cajun French, Religion : non-practicing Catholic, Age : 20, City : Mobile, State : AL, Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Matt]

I think this comes from the differing origins of different ethnic terms. Specific place names are proper nouns, and usually capitalized, such as the Caucasus Mountians, Africa, or the Middle East. Same goes for languages such as Latin. So, the ethnic terms we derive from those words – Caucasian, African-American, Middle Eastern, and Latino / Latina – are capitalized too. On the other hand, black and white – and red or yellow, although those have fallen out of favor – are simply colors. Colors on their own are not capitalized, so they are not used for ethnic terms either.

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Name : Matt, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 25, City : Oxford, State : GA, Country : United States, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Andromeda]

I believe it has to do with using proper grammar. I don’t know where you’re getting that some people capitalize white, but if they are, then they’re wrong in doing so. Black and white aren’t (and shouldn’t) be capitalized because they are adjectives, yet the others, Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, are capitalized b/c their roots words are nouns that are capitalized (Latino=Latin; Asian=Asia; Middle Eastern= Middle East.) If someone does capitalize white and not black and vice versa, you can either attribute it to ignorance or perhaps a hint of racism on their part. 😉

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Name : Andromeda, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Agnostic, Age : 17, City : Washington, State : DC, Country : United Kingdom, Occupation : Student, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 

[Andrew]

i think i have noticed this as well. But i don’t think racism is the reason. because the word black is very common to the english language it is often written in the context of a pro-noun uncapitalised. Then this would be a error. next posability is this all major publiscations are written via a computer and maybe spell checkers are the cause?

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Name : Andrew, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 30, City : Melbourne, State : NA, Country : Australia, Occupation : IT professional, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Justin26841]

It is racism. It is racism when a white person holds the door for you because it is condescension. It is racism when a white person forgets to hold the door for you because it belies a seething contempt. But the most vile, despicable indicator of whether a white person is a rabid racist is if he or she openly expresses disagreement with a white liberal. there are those who would say that white people have largeley reformed themselves (they’re racists), when in fact the truth is that white americans today are so frothing at the mouth racist that you can hardly tell it by what they say think or do both in and out of the presence of black peeople. one needs new strategies to detect this new covert racism. the most effective of these is to ‘imagine’ racist motives behind any behavior you see of whites, for instance: if you see a white person spit out some gum on the sidewalk, use your ‘imagination’. guage the ethnicity of the surrounding neighborhood. is it non-white? there’s your answer. he was defiling the neighborhood. is the neighborhood white? then it was meant as a personal disrespect to you, essentially saying ‘this neighborhood is ‘whites only’.

User Detail :  

Name : Justin26841, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[David Rogers]

Capitalizing ‘black’ would be like changing ‘Korean’ to ‘Yellow’ or ‘Mexican’ to ‘Brown.’ Instead of capitalizing ‘black,’ they capitalize ‘African American.’

User Detail :  

Name : David Rogers, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Nigerian, I don't consider myself black, Religion : Pentecostal, Age : 19, City : Upland, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Upper class, 

[Jessica]

That’s really strange. I’ve only seen Caucasian listed with African American, not Caucasian with ‘black’. When I see lists of ethnicities, I either see ‘white’ and ‘black’ or ‘African American’ and ‘Caucasian’. In both cases, the capitalization stays uniform. Perhaps what you’ve seen is just a typo? I really don’t think it’s a racist thing – white, black, green and purple aren’t capitalized because they refer to colors rather than ethnicities.

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Name : Jessica, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 23, City : Huntsville, State : TX, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Katrina M.]

You are being a bit over-sensitive. I noticed you used the word Caucasian instead of white. The word white isn’t capitalized, either. There is no racist reason; it isn’t in capital letters either. The reason is that the words ‘black’ and ‘white’, even when referred to as a race, are common nouns, which aren’t supposed to be capitalized. Conversely, Caucasian, African American, Latinos, etc. are proper nouns, therefore they are capitalized. If a reporter were to capitalize either the words black or white, they would be doing so against commonly accepted grammar, and their editor would change it.

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Name : Katrina M., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Cajun French, Religion : non-practicing Catholic, Age : 20, City : Mobile, State : AL, Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Denisia25838]

I don’t know the answer to why ‘black’ is not capitalized, but I have noticed it. I don’t prefer to use the word ‘black’ in refering to people. It sounds bad the way people say it. It’s like they say ‘bulaack’. I also really dislike it when people say ‘blacks’. I say ‘brown people’ all of the time. Now everyone I know says ‘brown,’ too.

User Detail :  

Name : Denisia25838, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Age : 21, City : Chantilly, State : VA, Country : United States, 

[Dominique]

I am opposed to refering to people as colors. At the same time, I cannot help doing it myself at times, because it seems to be society that decides, not me. However, in answer to your question, perhaps black isn’t capitalized because it IS a color. I’ve seen many times where ‘white’ wasn’t capitalized, either. Come on – these are colors of crayons we are talking about, not people. In my opinion, I think we need to step away from putting each other inside boxes. Just think: In a few years when we are a conglomerate of ethnicities, what will we be called? What ‘color’ will we be?

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Name : Dominique, Gender : F, Age : 20, City : Houston, State : TX, Country : United States, Occupation : Scientist, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower class, 

[Michael-S20640]

Perhaps the use of ‘Black’ as a racial group hasn’t been fully recognized by the dictionary-producing community (although I’m not sure why they wouldn’t have) and thus comes up on spell checks suggesting ‘black’ as a correct spelling.

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Name : Michael-S20640, Gender : M, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, 

[D. Ross]

The word black is not the real name of ‘black people.’ This name was given to us by Europeans, just like the words ‘nigger’ and ‘colored.’ We have a name, and it is Israel. Look at the history of the Israelites desribed in the Bible. Moses told Israel that it would be sold as bondmen and bondwomen to a people who were foreign and spoke a language that had never heard. No other race in the world fits this description but ‘blacks.’ Not even the Jews.

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Name : D. Ross, Gender : F, Age : 24, City : Ross, State : OH, Country : United States, 

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