[lbo-talk] Art and Politics

Joel Wendland joelrw at hotmail.com
Tue Jul 13 06:25:35 PDT 2004


Doug Henwood wrote:


>Why is Black capitalized and white not?

I can't speak for Yoshie's rationale, but Political Affairs' editorial policy is to capitalize Black just as we would capitalize African American or French or German etc. White refers to a collection of nationalities and ethnic groups. While this may not be exactly consistent with terms like American Indian or Native American, it is, as my editor says, a bit of linguistic justice if nothing else. Interestingly, there was a struggle by Black writers and scholars (I'm thinking of W.E.B. Du Bois for one) in the early 20th century to pressure editors and publishers to capitalize the word "negro" or "black" in magazines that would capitalize the word White.

Joel Wendland http://www.politicalaffairs.net

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