Capitalizing White & Black

Here are two perspectives on capitalizing "white" and "black" from The New York Times and The Atlantic. I have also pasted some essential quotations. 

I would especially recommend reading the Atlantic article. It offers fascinating insights on race as a social construct, our usage of capitalized letters for human-made entities vs. physical ones, and the differing opinions on the capitalization of "white."

The New York Times, "Why We're Capitalizing Black"  

• “'It seems like such a minor change, black versus Black,' The Times’s National editor, Marc Lacey, said. 'But for many people the capitalization of that one letter is the difference between a color and a culture.'”

The Atlantic, "The Case for Capitalizing the B in Black" 

• "For many advocates of the uppercase, though, the stakes are far greater. 'Black with a capital ‘B’ refers to a group of people whose ancestors were born in Africa, were brought to the United States against their will, spilled their blood, sweat and tears to build this nation into a world power and along the way managed to create glorious works of art, passionate music, scientific discoveries, a marvelous cuisine, and untold literary masterpieces,' Lori L. Tharps, who teaches journalism at Temple University, wrote in 2015. 'When a copyeditor deletes the capital ‘B,’ they are in effect deleting the history and contributions of my people.'"
• "'We strongly believe that leaving white in lowercase represents a righting of a long-standing wrong and a demand for dignity and racial equity,' Price, of the Insight Center, wrote. Until the wrongs against black people have been righted, she continued, 'we cannot embrace equal treatment in our language.' The capital letter, in her view, amounts to cultural capital—a benefit that white people should be awarded only after white supremacy has been rolled back."

• "This spring, the Center for the Study of Social Policy, in a statement by two nonwhite staff members, announced that it would follow the American Psychological Association’s style rules, and helpfully elaborated its reasoning: 'To not name ‘White’ as a race is, in fact, an anti-Black act which frames Whiteness as both neutral and the standard … We believe that it is important to call attention to White as a race as a way to understand and give voice to how Whiteness functions in our social and political institutions and our communities. Moreover, the detachment of ‘White’ as a proper noun allows White people to sit out of conversations about race and removes accountability from White people’s and White institutions’ involvement in racism.'"

If you would like some more information on why/how race is a social construct, I would encourage you to look at the following resources:

• "What We Mean When We Say 'Race Is a Social Construct'" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

• "Race ≠ DNA" by Joseph L. Graves Jr. 

• Also.... if you want an excellent resource about learning about race/racism, this online workbook has been very helpful for me.

I'd also love to hear your thoughts/comments on this debate. Do you agree more with the perspective of the Insight Center or the Center for the Study of Social Policy? Do you have an entirely different opinion?