Black with a Capital ‘B’

WDKX is a Black owned and operated radio station. Black with a capital B!

In this revolutionary fight to end racism and promote equality in America, there’s one thing that is being overlooked.

The common practice of writing “black” as a lowercase word when describing us as a people.

When referring to a black jacket or a black umbrella, lowercase is fine. But when referring to Black people in America, the word needs to be capitalized.

“It is evident that anti-Blackness permeates every aspect of life in the United States, including how institutions write and talk about people. Language has been part of the way society and institutions separate Black Americans and devalue their humanity.” – Center for the Study of Social Policy, 2003

Norm Goldstein, author of the AP Stylebook explained that he uses lowercase “black” when referring to race because it “reflects a common language usage found in newspapers and magazines”.

If you aren’t familiar with the AP Stylebook, it is the guide by which news outlets write their articles.

You’ll notice publications like Essence and Ebony Magazine have made the conscious decision to capitalize the word Black in articles about Black culture, but predominantly  White institutions continue to use a lowercase ‘b’.

Publishers refused to capitalize the b of Author Demetrius Walker’s book “I’m a Black Man”.

Today, the National Association for Black Journalists announced that it is changing the organization’s style guidelines to capitalize “Black” in all forms of communications out of respect for the Black diaspora.

NABJ Statement on Capitalizing Black and Other Racial Identifiers

For the last year, the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) has been integrating the capitalization of the word “Black” into its communications.

However, it is equally important that the word is capitalized in news coverage and reporting about Black people, Black communities, Black culture, Black institutions, etc.

NABJ’s Board of Directors has adopted this approach, as well as many of our members, and recommends that it be used across the industry.

NABJ also recommends that whenever a color is used to appropriately describe race then it should be capitalized, including White and Brown.