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I believe Black (when capitalized) is meant to refer to American descendants of slavery.


Feels like it would be very weird to ask someone if they are a recent immigrant (there are millions of African Americans who immigrated to the USA post 1965 or are children of those immigrants) or an ADOS to decide whether you should label them “Black” or “black”.

I’ll say whatever someone prefers though. Capitalizing “w” in white is a bit creepy to me though and has echoes of promoting the idea that all “whites” are the same.


Why would you need to label someone by their ethnicity in daily life? This stuff really only comes up in two situations:

1. Forms where the person in question just fills it in themselves (generally the option is Black/African anyway)

2. Discussions about groups of people in which case the labels are descriptive and fairly easy to navigate.


1. Absolutely

2. Usually the discussion or writing would not be limited to ADOS. I’ve very rarely seen writers attempt to divide the community like that. As I said though, I’m fine with capitalizing it if that community wants it.

You could make a lot of the same statements about “whites” becoming one community in america. That said I don’t think capitalizing the W looks good, it’s weird and seems like something a white supremacist would do.




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