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Why I Capitalize the “B” in Black People
Not the “W” in white people
In response to my article Black Men Having Sex With White Women, I received a comment from a reader:
Great text! Smart and to the point. Now, what I keep wondering and maybe you can tell me what I am missing, is why you capitalize Black but not White. Is the capital for Black because Black people are an ethnic group? You sure use Whites as a generality and an ethnic group. So what’s the difference? Is it because of a shared Black culture? So does that mean that all people with black skin share the same culture? I don’t see it but am willing to accept that I just do not understand. I do not see how a black skinned Muslim Pakistani is of the same ethnic group and culture as a black skinned Christian American. Other than maybe facing racism for being dark (or is it Dark?), they have nothing in common. So is that it? Is shared oppression the reason why? But Christian gets capitalized. No oppression there unless one belongs to the far right. Black gets capitalized, OK, Muslim gets capitalized, Asian gets capitalized, but somehow “White women” does not? Weird is it not? ~ Joe
Thank you, Joe, for asking such an in-depth question. I live for dialogue and I am excited to dive into this with you!
