Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
The last time The New York Times made a sweeping call to capitalize how it referred to people of African ancestry was nearly a century ago.
W.E.B. Du Bois had started a letter-writing campaign asking publications, including The Times, to capitalize the N in Negro, a term long since eradicated from The Times’s pages. “The use of a small letter for the name of twelve million Americans and two hundred million human beings,” he once wrote, was “a personal insult.”
The Times turned him down in 1926 before coming around in 1930, when the paper wrote that the new entry in its stylebook — its internal guide on grammar and usage — was “not merely a typographical change,” but “an act in recognition of racial self-respect.”
Decades later, a monthlong internal discussion at The Times led the paper on Tuesday to make, for similar reasons, its latest style change on race — capitalizing Black when describing people and cultures of African origin.
“We believe this style best conveys elements of shared history and identity, and reflects our goal to be respectful of all the people and communities we cover,” said Dean Baquet, The Times’s executive editor, and Phil Corbett, associate managing editor for standards, in a memo to staff.
Conversations about the change began in earnest at The Times and elsewhere after the death of George Floyd and subsequent protests, said Mike Abrams, senior editor for editing standards. Several major news media organizations have made the same callincluding The Associated Press, whose stylebook has long been an influential guide for news organizations.
“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.”
Comments
From the article, "Then there are those troubled that our policy will now capitalize ‘Black’ but not ‘white.’"
This is the only point that matters. If White and Caucasian are capitalized then Black and Negro should also be capitalized. If white or caucasian isn't capitalized then neither should they capitalize black or negro. Grammar rules on capitalization should simply be standardized, no more, no less.
by ocean-kat on Sun, 07/05/2020 - 3:41pm
Negro is capitalized by Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Negro
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 07/05/2020 - 5:35pm
And Caucasian is also. If, as is likely the case, at one time they capitalized Caucasian but didn't Negro that was wrong and racist.
by ocean-kat on Sun, 07/05/2020 - 6:01pm
white is not being capitalized by the NYT. brown is not being capitalized
The NYT uses Black and Caucasian, but brown and white. Black is an update to Negro.
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 07/05/2020 - 6:15pm
That's garbage reasoning. No ethnic group has a 100% shared history but Whites do have a much longer shared culture and history. Much of Black culture and history isn't shared by many Blacks unfortunately due to being interrupted by slavery. Non immigrant Black Americans share a culture and history and so do non immigrant White Americans. White Americans share much culture and history with White Europeans but most Black Americans don't share any culture or history with Black Nigerians or Black Africans even if their ancestors came from there as slaves.
It doesn't matter if White Supremacist hate groups capitalized White. Should we search their literature and make a list of words capitalized and a list of words not capitalized and do the opposite?
by ocean-kat on Sun, 07/05/2020 - 6:45pm
I suggest you take it up with the NYT. They also raised the issue of capitalized white being used by supremacists.
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 07/05/2020 - 6:52pm
They also raised the issue of capitalized white being used by supremacists.
And I also addressed that in my reply. You really should read what people say before you respond.
It's a trivial issue that I don't care about. But you decided it was important enough to you to post here so I addressed it. Have you decided to turn into Wattree? Posting so your words will be saved for posterity but unwilling to discuss what you post
by ocean-kat on Sun, 07/05/2020 - 6:58pm
I pointed you back to the Times rationale which included the white supremacy link. It is their new policy.
I stated that Black replaced Negro. I discussed the NYT decision. I don't have a problem. Caucasian remains available to soothe your feelings.
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 07/05/2020 - 7:10pm
As I said I don't care about it at all. It was done to soothe your feelings. One more dumb ass response likely from guilt over past generations mistakes. They made a symbolic gesture and rationalized it with bogus reasoning. I read the article before you posted it, had a laugh about how stupid it was and forgot it within seconds. But you're so pleased with this nothing symbol you had to post it here.
by ocean-kat on Sun, 07/05/2020 - 7:25pm
I posted it and look who responded.
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 07/06/2020 - 3:00pm