Center for the Study of Social Policy - Inspirational Thoughts

If you are going to use words like “black” and “white”, as racial terms, then, it should be the case that both words are capitalized, not just one or the other.

1) According to the Center for the Study of Social Policy …

Recognizing Race in Language: Why We Capitalize “Black” and “White”

(excerpt 1)
In addition to capitalizing Black, CSSP has also made the decision to capitalize White. We will do this when referring to people who are racialized as White in the United States, including those who identify with ethnicities and nationalities that can be traced back to Europe. To not name “White” as a race is, in fact, an anti-Black act which frames Whiteness as both neutral and the standard.

(excerpt 2)
For these reasons, we require the capitalization of “Black” and “White” when referring to racial identity in our work. Establishing a rule, instead of leaving capitalization to the writer as a choice, emphasizes the critical importance and political permanence of these words as real, existing racial identities. And instead of hoping for other White institutions to apply equitable treatment of capitalizing both “Black” and “White,” we’ve taken the step to establish our own style guide, and hope others will follow

– Ann Thúy Nguyễn and Maya Pendleton (March 23, 2020)

2) According to Kwame Anthony Appiah (Professor of philosophy and law at New York University) …

The Case for Capitalizing the B in Black:
Black and white are both historically created racial identities—and whatever rule applies to one should apply to the other.

(excerpt 3)
The style guide of the American Psychological Association declares, as it has for a generation: “Racial and ethnic groups are designated by proper nouns and are capitalized. Therefore, use ‘Black’ and ‘White’ instead of ‘black’ and ‘white.’”

(excerpt 4)
The point of the capital letter, then, isn’t to elevate; it’s to situate. “White Americans deserve their capital letter too,” Tharps says magnanimously, “but I’m not here to fight their battles.” Perhaps a stronger argument would be that white people don’t deserve a lowercase w and shouldn’t be allowed to claim it. One reason that the MIT philosopher Sally Haslanger prefers to capitalize the names of races is, she explains, “to highlight the artificiality of race,” by contrast to the seeming naturalness of color. A larger argument lurks here: Racial identities were not discovered but created, she’s reminding us, and we must all take responsibility for them. Don’t let them disguise themselves as common nouns and adjectives. Call them out by their names.