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In a newsroom, it\\u2019s rare that a question of whether to capitalize a word sparks intense discussion and debate. But in June, an issue of textual style became an urgent topic at The Washington Post: Should journalists begin capitalizing the word \\u201cBlack\\u201d when used as a racial identifier? And if so \\u2026 what does that mean for \\u201cWhite\\u201d? And \\u201cBrown\\u201d? 

\\u201cDuring my lifetime, this decision has come up a lot,\\u201d says Jesse Lewis, who leads The Post\\u2019s copy editing desk. \\u201cI was born in the \\u201950s, and at the time, \\u2018Negro\\u2019 was the preferred term. \\u2026 Then you get to the late \\u201960s, early \\u201970s, \\u2018African-American\\u2019 was used as the term of discussion. There are things that happen in society that bring these issues to the forefront.\\u201d 

The story of how The Post\\u2019s final decision came about \\u2014 with intense discussions within our newsroom and throughout the journalism industry \\u2014 says a lot about our moment of racial reckoning, and the thoughtfulness and deliberation that moment demands. 

And the results can be controversial \\u2014 especially when it came to the decision on whether to identify America\\u2019s White community with a capital W. 

\\u201cThere\\u2019s a certain denialism to the idea that race isn\\u2019t an issue,\\u201d Lewis said, arguing for the need to classify White as a racial identity. \\u201cWriters have said, maybe you just uppercase \\u2018White\\u2019 because then it\\u2019s recognized, or Whites recognize it as a racial category, and they will have to deal with the consequences of being categorized by race.\\u201d

Read more:

The Washington Post memo on writing style changes for racial and ethnic identifiers: The Post will capitalize Black to identify groups that make up the African diaspora.

Nell Irvin Painter: Why \\u2018White\\u2019 should be capitalized, too.

Eve Ewing: I\\u2019m a Black Scholar Who Studies Race. Here\\u2019s Why I Capitalize \\u2018White.\\u2019

Kwame Anthony Appiah: The Case for Capitalizing the B in Black.

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