The AP Stylebook is the standard for writing news articles, professional articles, and term papers. It addresses capitalization, punctuation, headlines, grammar, formatting, and so on. Apparently, it also influences the culture war.
On Friday, Juneteenth, the Associated Press announced on Twitter that the Stylebook will now require the word “Black” to be capitalized in news stories when used “in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense.”
“White” will not be capitalized.
Obviously, this is very divisive. Blacks and Whites should be equals, one isn’t superior to the other.
“Our discussions on style and language consider many points, including the need to be inclusive and respectful in our storytelling and the evolution of language. We believe this change serves those ends,” AP adds. “Our revisions come after more than two years of in-depth research and discussion with colleagues and respected thinkers from a diversity of backgrounds, both within and from outside the cooperative,” they wrote nonsensically.
AP’s style is now to capitalize Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa.
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) June 19, 2020
We also now capitalize Indigenous in reference to original inhabitants of a place.
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) June 19, 2020
As a global news organization, we are continuing to discuss within the U.S. and internationally whether to capitalize the term white. Considerations are many and include any implications that doing so might have outside the United States. We will have a decision within a month.
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) June 19, 2020
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