By Jake Dima
The Associated Press, a U.S. wire service and news outlet, announced Monday that it will capitalize “black” when referring to the racial group in its stories, but not “white.”
The AP said a statement about the change that white people have a less distinct culture than do black people, and that whites don’t have the experience of discrimination based on skin color.
“White people generally do not share the same history and culture, or the experience of being discriminated against because of skin color.” AP’s vice president for standards John Daniszewski said in the announcement.
But “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,” Daniszewski said.
The national publication said that capitalizing white could be harmful because white supremacists often capitalize “white” when referring to people or culture, according to a report about the change posted by AP.
“We agree that white people’s skin color plays into systemic inequalities and injustices, and we want our journalism to robustly explore these problems,” Daniszewski said. “But capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs.”
Daniszewski’s remarks come despite several black organizations like The National Association of Black Journalists releasing guidance that “white” should be capitalized in addition to “black,” AP reported.
The AP made the decision to capitalize “black” about a month ago, but released the statement Monday to clarify that they won’t be capitalizing “white.”
AP’s style is now to capitalize Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa.
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) June 19, 2020
The AP’s guidelines are widely influential on how journalists format their writing through their release of the AP Stylebook that is adhered to by numerous news organizations.
The AP said that capitalizing “white” could cause Caucasians to abdicate conversations about racial inequality in the country, according to the announcement.
The New York Times made a similar decision July 5 and chose to capitalize only “black.”
“It seems like such a minor change, black versus Black,” The Times’s national editor Marc Lacey said in the publication’s statement to the public. “But for many people the capitalization of that one letter is the difference between a color and a culture.”
The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, NBC News and others have also followed the trend, according to AP.
Calls to capitalize the word “black” in writing follow nationwide demonstrations against racial inequality and police brutality after the death of George Floyd, who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for over eight minutes, video showed.
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How stupid. White, White, White, White, etc.
Quite frankly ap, no one gives a shxxxxt about what you do, you’ve made yourselves irrelevant,and by the way Hilarious
Only hurting themselves by proving to be smallminded and petty while shining a floodlight on their foolishness – however crazy great to see all of the leftwingers cutting to get to front of the line of lemmings to be first to jump over the cliff lol *sigh* When enemy is shooting self in foot- – leave them alone much… 😉
So THERE … you privileged poo poo faces. That’ll fix you. (Lord…I feel so much better now, We got ’em)
The AP is in effect lessening one group at the expense of another. Blatant racism that they will perpetuate with this policy.
How about we capitalize A in American.
Aren’t we all American’s? Isn’t that the whole purpose of liberty and justice for all? That all men are created equal?
We need better education and less communist indoctrination that purposely divides. We are all Americans, all God’s children, and yes we all have different cultures. Can we capitalize R in Red-Neck, cause I’m proud of that too.
Notice how all these radical and changes that have us fighting come out 4 months before an election? All at once, across the nation, where every paper is saying the same exact thing? Isnt’ that interesting? Do you know how much coordination, man power and money it takes to pull something like this off? It’s not happening organically. Think about it……
???? You are clearly not WOKE. Where do you live?
I’m not ‘woke’ either, but I am dangerous.
Really, who thought up this one???? If these morons weren’t serious, it would be a joke.
I live in what was once the real world which unfortunately no longer exists..
Political parties disagreeing and fiercely debating is *not* new. We need this and it’s healthy. Also exposes each camp for who they are. Politics are now just more polarized – great divide happened during Hussein reign of terror. The leftwingers are the trouble makers and Democrat Party is to blame for the increased discord.
Predicting that many Dems will secretly switch sides just as they did during Vietnam war but won’t tell anyone bc they too are afraid of their own mob.
I have a friend of many years, a diehard liberal who just walked away from the crazies. She has lost (so called) friends, has been shamed and brow beaten by others and called names for liking President Trump.
These people are dangerous. Mostly not physically but with their mouths and deranged minds. They will dox you, shame you, call you names and spread untrue rumors about you. They will do this because of their hate for America and Trump and they will transfer that hate onto whoever disagrees or has a different point of view than theirs.
These are people who can’t be reasoned with. It is evident all over this state. They have control and they are using it to destroy our customs, our freedoms and our culture. I will not placate them any longer. I view them as my political enemies. I did not bring this on, they did. I was born and raised here in a much different time, a much better time in Vermont. If you can’t see it, you are part of the problem. Quit bitching at each other and TAKE BACK VERMONT from these carpetbaggers, socialists, globalists progresssive/democrats or live under their thumb.