From the editor: Chronicle will capitalize Black

To our readers, Today, you might notice a change in our capitalization policy involving race: We will be capitalizing the word “Black” when used as an adjective to describe people in a racial, ethnic or cultural context.

This change comes at a time of heightened sensitivities after the killing of former Houstonian George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis and the racial justice movement that has followed.

The Associated Press, a worldwide not-for-profit news cooperative whose style we generally follow, announced

June 19 that it would begin capitalizing Black and Indigenous, the latter in reference to original inhabitants of a place. Many other news organizations have agreed.

After lengthy internal deliberations, we decided to adopt those new standards and also to follow the current AP style on white and brown, which are used less commonly to describe a shared culture and identity than to describe the skin color of individuals from many different cultures.

Those terms will remain lowercase.

The use of uppercase “white” by hate groups and white supremacists also influenced our thinking.

As with all style rules — and particularly those affecting racial and gender identity — we will continue to review and update our style as the language evolves and standards change.