One commenter said this:
Abagond,
No matter how wrong you are YOU must be right. No English teacher in 2009 would allow you to write in a paper “black” with a small “b” no even in the deep south where Blacks are still made to feel like smal “b”. But must be right, right? Why? White is right, isn’t it? You should just start from this day to pus the shift key when writing the word Black to denote a people. I will not hurt you and it will make Black folk who read what you write feel better about you, me included. Yes how you make other feel should be important to you.
That kind of got to me. And it got me curious: what do black blogs in my corner of the blogosphere use, “black” or “Black”? Here is what I found (these appear in at least four blog rolls with me):
- black (16): The field negro, Aunt Jemima’s Revenge, Afrobella, Raw Dawg Buffalo, The Black Snob, Beauty in Baltimore, Siditty, Black Women Blow The Trumpet!, What Would Thembi Do?, What Tami Said, New Black Woman, Make Fetch Happen, Jack & Jill Politics, The Root, The Cocoa Lounge, Acting White.
- Black (3): What About Our Daughters, Mirror on America, Invisible Woman.
- Both black and Black (3): The Angry Black Woman, Hello Negro, AverageBro.com.
- Unknown (1): Gorgeous Black Women.
So out of 23 blogs only 3, about one in eight, use “Black” all the time as the adjective for black people. Most use “black” regularly, like I do.
So while “Black” might be more politically correct, “black” cannot cause that much offence – though I could be wrong.
But as interesting as that is, it is not how I settle matters like this. Instead what I do is look it up in my dictionary: the Eleventh Edition of the “Concise Oxford English Dictionary” (2006). It uses “black” as its main word for black people, not “Black”, much less “African American”, “Negro” or “coloured”. So that is what I use.
The Oxford dictionary was written mainly by white people. So far as I know there is no dictionary of Black American English. And even if there was, I would use it but not to settle matters like these. My aim in using English is to be understood all over the world, not just in one part of one country (Black America).
I do use “Black” on occasion, but only where I talk about blacks as an ethnicity or a culture. In that sense Eminem might arguably be called “Black” but Lenny Kravitz not, even though Kravitz is “black” and Eminem is “white” – by race.
To me what makes you black is not taking part in a particular culture or being shaped by it, like being French. It is not about music or language or anything like that. To me what makes you black is race, the experience of looking black in a white racist country and everything that follows from that.
– Abagond, 2009.
See also:
- Why I use “Black” instead of “black” – I changed over in March 2014.
- The Wigger Fallacy – culture vs race vs blackness
- political correctness
- words for black people:
- my style guide:
- One Drop Rule
I capitalize Black and also White when writing about race and the terms refer to people. I do so because Negro, African American, Afro-American are capitalized.Since the White folks wrote the dictionary, they decided how you should refer to us Black folks. Well, I decided you should capitalize Black and also White.
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I’m curious. How do you figure that someone like Kravitz is not “Black”, but Eminem is?
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Interesting post on a vexed issue. As with other racial terminology, there may be no one perfect way to do this.
Regarding black/Black English dictionaries, I don’t know if dictionaries of “slang” qualify, but I’ve found Clarence Majors’ Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang useful. Here’s another one–its entry on “Black” doesn’t address this capitalization issue.
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The Eminem/Kravitz thing: it is not a position I am willing to defend. That is why I said “arguably”.
I picked those two because Eminem does culturally Black music while Kravitz does culturally White music (yeah, yeah, I know where rock music comes from. I have also called gangsta rap White American music. So ironies here abound).
I did hear Kravitz one time not knowing who he was and he sounded to me like some white man from Tennessee!
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I want to know why this matters so much? If someone’s going to be that nit-picky about capitalization, then why not bother spell/grammar checking their own comment?
Cattiness aside, there’s no right way to do the capitalization for race, though it’s generally accepted that if a particular continent or country is denoted, it is treated like a proper noun (African-American, Asian, Spanish, Caucasian). Meanwhile, black and white are common nouns, so if anyone wants to designate a specific meaning then it can be capitalized. (As you have done when you chose to). But that specific meaning does not have to carry across to someone else who does not assign that same meaning to the world. Such is the beauty of English. I don’t have to use your way if I really don’t want to. You don’t have to use mine.
But what irks me is how people *decide* that they want to be offended. Really? It’s not that big of a deal. Don’t try to hold someone up to some imaginary standard just to pick a fight. Not capitalizing ‘black’ is not a crime and does not indicate some underlying tone of white supremacy.
Also, chances are that if someone (no matter what their race) is reading a serious blog with serious content, they probably won’t change their mind about the blogger because he/she won’t hold the shift key.Constant misspellings? Understandable. Weak arguments? Understandable. Minor capitalization discrepancies? It’s really not that crucial.
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“English,” IMO, is a very racist language. “English” is also a very useful tool for the racist white supremacists. I DO NOT TRUST their authoritative “definitionaries (dictionaries) regarding anything having to do with RACE because they hide, alter, confuse and obfuscate TRUTH so that the system of white supremacy can perpetuate itself.
This isn’t a hard case to make, given who the authors of these so-called dictionaries are. White Supremacists (the elite class of western civilization) do not only re-name geographic locations world-wide according to their whims, they also use WORDS to label, categorize, mis-lead, re-name, re-adjust everything else… for THEIR benefit.
Can you OVERSTAND this?
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Matari said: they also use WORDS to label, categorize, mis-lead, re-name, re-adjust everything else… for THEIR benefit.
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I agree. The fact that we are arguing over words like “black” or “white” which never existed before Columbus are means to separate people from their commonality.
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Wow. As a black woman, I must say that capitalization doesn’t matter/bother/or affect me. It’s not that serious. We as a people (not just black people, but America as a whole) have so much more to be worried about than this. It’s really not that serious. Abagond continue to do what you do best.
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LOL, Abagond.
Well, Kravitz always had a few R&B-flavored songs one each of his albums. (Not that I really listen, I haven’t heard any of his albums since his self-titled 2001 release…that’s been about 2-3 albums ago).
Now that I think about it, his first two albums, were more soul/rockpop. I remember BET playing the “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over” video.
White man from TN…LOL! Where’d you get that one from?
Eminem is very white, culturally. His music and persona is very much rooted in a low-class white male aesthetic. Not a urban black one.
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As far as the whole Lenny-Eminem example, it was just that, an example. And I think he was referring to Lenny being more accepted by white people than black people and Eminem being more accepted by black people than white people.
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Right, it is just an example, not necessarily a true one.
Kravitz does do some R&B, but most of his stuff seems to be outright rock.
One time I copied my wife’s Kravitz songs – she has one of his albums – to my iTunes. One of his songs came up on the shuffle only I did not know it was him. To me he sounded white, like someone from Tennessee or something. When I went to look who it was it turned out to be Lenny Kravitz!
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English is a racist language. But it is what we have to work with. We live in a broken world and do the best we can. Dictionaries, for all their shortcomings, help us to use the same words in the same ways so that we can be understood from one end of the earth to the other.
Most of my readers may be British and North American but I know this blog is read – in English – in Africa, India, the Middle East and Malaysia too. That is an amazing and wonderful thing that the British Empire, as racist as it was, has made possible.
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Thank you, Ashley (comment #8).
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“…so that we can be understood from one end of the earth to the other.”
This is debatable. I witness a lot of “mis-understandings” between people speaking the same English language in the same house. :-))
Seriously though, I echo what Ashley says and I enjoy much of the ENLIGHTENMENT that I see here (in case you couldn’t tell). Thanks for letting me hang out for a little while.
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I understand that it was merely a simple example. It was just an odd one, hence why I commented.
And Eminem is more accepted by blacks than whites? Funny. 95% of his fanbase is as white as he is.
We’re just going to have disagree with Kravitz! That man doesn’t sound a damn thing like a white man from TN! LOL.
As you can see Aba, I have a “thing” about accuracy. It’s just the journalist in me. Don’t take offense.
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Eminem does sound completely white to me.
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I say use “black”, there is nothing wrong with it and it has nothing to do with how views themselves within the context of race. I am black, not because I am inferior, but because I am simply “black”.
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I write black and white because… Let me see, I guess that’s how I learned in school. Names of races were never capitalized. It never occurred to me it might be different in English language. Nobody ever corrected me, or implied I was disrespectful for not capitalizing.
I don’t like Eminem, so I have no idea if he sounds black or not, but Lenny? Eh, I am not sure what to say. I can always recognize his voice and I know it’s him so it’s hard for me to decide if he sounds black or not (not that I’m good in recognizing “black” and “white” voices).
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I don’t think “black” or “Black” makes much of a difference?
I mean, it’s a color that people have termed a race. Beyond this, even when you are describing something in this case..black is the adjective rather you say “black” people or “black” Americans so it shouldn’t be in caps, it’s descriptive, not a noun.
in the case of something like “Black issues” or just “Blacks”…one might consider using caps because black is being used as a noun in this case in the place of the people they are talking about.
Anyway, all in all, not really a big deal. Interesting post though because I’ve never heard this argued before.
Anyway, all in all, not really a big deal. Interesting post though.
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Lenny sounds whiney.
Period.
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i wanna talk to you . . .
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Its an interesting point to discuss. Black or black and White or white.
For me its quite straight forward:
Its conventionally, by that I mean if f you reference most dictionaries you will see “black” and “white” purely as descriptive terms of colour (I am British so its colour not color!!!)
This is fine when thats all you are referring to. A purely descriptive colour term. However, Abagond , as you have already ponded “Black” can denote much more than just a colour and its usage and adoption from the African-American struggles of the 60’s in statements like “Black Power” testifies to this.
And I would add while “Black” has this historical connection or significance “White” does not. That is unless of course you are wishing to advance a particular racial doctrine!
So for me, regardless of what other so called official sources would say or use, I intentionally use “Black” and “white” when referring to peoples.
This helps to convey a more positive and historical, cultural recognition of the contributions of Black peoples as opposed to Negros or negros or blacks..etc which in my view tend to diminish this.
I also try to qualify this with usage of the word “people” to show I mean more than just a descriptive colour term
So: Black people or white people
But of course this is just my opinion…
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