‘Black’ Is Capitalized in the AP Stylebook and It’s Life-changing

Just a few months ago, writing ‘Black’ when referring to race wasn’t considered standard by the Associated Press (AP).

AP is what top-tier newsgroups and writers turn to for guidance about professional writing style guides and it advised writers to use ‘black’ instead when referring to African Americans.

A few months ago, this all changed and now AP’s standard is to use ‘Black’ when writing about the race.

This might not seem like a big deal, but it says a lot about how far last summer's protests have come and the differences they have made.

Other races were already capitalized by AP. Races like Hispanic and Italian have been capitalized by the AP Style guide since the guide was created, but not Black.

Racial Injustice

Amid last summer's protests and the outrage in the country toward racial injustice, AP decided to finally capitalize Black.

If you still don’t get it, let me put it in layman's terms. It’s called recognition. The United States’ best and most trusted writing guide recognized Black as a race and more than just a color.

It’s such a new concept that many journalists are still lowercasing it because they’ve been doing it since…well since forever. Also, since it was just recently capitalized, not only was it not recognized by AP. It also wasn't recognized by any other writing style guide.

What This Means

This is really big news. It’s the subtle things in life that really change the opinion of subconscious minds.

Imagine it, every time you wake up and read a newspaper early in the morning, the word Black will now stand out. It jumps at you. It sticks in your mind.

Why? Because it’s capitalized and stands out from the rest of a sentence. It demands attention like any other race and says “I’m just like everyone else, I’m equal.”

It also shows how change can actually be made by standing up for what you believe in. Before the protests and the killing of the unarmed Black men last summer, the race that is Black people was described without capitalizing the ‘B.’

Another interesting update is that ‘white’ will remain lowercase when referring to the Caucasian race. Interesting, white? I mean, right?

Yes, Caucasian has been capitalized for a while, but so was African American. Black is now uppercase and white isn’t. That's a major difference that shouldn't be overlooked.

Just let that sink in. For every piece of professional writing in the United States that is published with AP guidelines (which is a lot), Black will be capitalized when referring to race.

Future Takeaway

If a journalist makes a mistake and forgets to capitalize it, the copy editor better remember. If the copy editor doesn’t realize it, the managing editor will. It will be forced to be in the minds of the best communicators on the planet.

It’s in the minds of the writers of the world which means it will be communicated to the minds of the masses.

Just remember, it’s the subtle things like this that really make a big difference.

This isn’t front-page news. This is just the world changing in the background and most people won’t ever be told about it. At least, they won’t be told straight to their face unless they’re a journalist.

Avid readers will begin to read ‘Black’ and it will capitalize the existence of an entire race that needs it badly. Amazing.

Originally published on Medium by me here: https://medium.com/status-quote/black-is-now-capitalized-in-the-ap-stylebook-and-it-s-life-changing-9f227a5ca30d