Why we write Black with a capital B

It’s out of respect and fairness

The Associated Press announced last week that it would start capitalizing Black when the word is used in “a racial, ethnic or cultural sense” and that Indigenous would also be capitalized when referring to original inhabitants of a place.

“Our discussions on style and language consider many points, including the need to be inclusive and respectful in our storytelling and the evolution of language,” wrote John Daniszewki, vice-president of standards for The Associated Press. “We believe this change serves those ends.”

The Canadian Press had made that decision earlier this month, and its style for the last few years has been to capitalize Indigenous.

As many readers have pointed out in recent years and months, The Spectator already capitalizes both, and has for some time. Some readers have not been happy about the policy. They asked: Why capitalize Black if you are not capitalizing white?

The short answer is that the world is changing, and as I have said here many times, so is the language.

While we generally follow Canadian Press style, we have many local exceptions, as does Torstar, the company that owns the Toronto Star, The Spectator and other daily newspapers.

The Star decided back in 2017 to capitalize both terms out of respect and fairness, and The Spectator does the same.

Kathy English, the Star’s public editor, wrote at the time: “I know there are long-standing style book ‘rules’ and conventions of language that have provided reasons for not capitalizing either ‘Indigenous’ or ‘Black.’ But, balanced against the questions of respect and fairness raised by not capitalizing these proper names and the passionate, intelligent requests to do so, I believe there is no contest here: Why not capitalize these words given how much it matters to those who care deeply about how the media depicts and names them? Why withhold something so simple — but clearly, so meaningful — as an upper-case letter?”

Her column added that white and brown remain unchanged because “they do not share same identity and experience the way Black does.”

It is human to resist change, just as it is human to promote change. But change is inevitable, and the language must follow suit.

Paul Berton is editor-in-chief at The Hamilton Spectator. Reach him via email: pberton@thespec.com