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The Associated Press announced it has changed its writing style guide and will now capitalize the letter “B” in the word Black when referring to people in a racial, ethnic or cultural context.
The death of George Floyd and the nationwide protests that followed sparked an ongoing debate among journalists about whether or not the lowercase “b” was disrespectful. David Lanham, director of communications for the Brooking Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, published an open letter to AP earlier this week calling for the change that officially went into effect on Juneteenth—a serendipitous treat. “Knowing how closely their Stylebook is viewed as the Bible for journalism, this is now the big domino to fall,” Lanham said.
The AP Stylebook is used as the official guide for most major news outlets, and the recent change was quickly embraced by The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and NBC News, according to Vermont Public Radio. The National Association of Black Journalists is urging all other news organizations to follow suit.
In a recent blog post, AP’s Vice President John Daniszewski, said, “These changes align with long-standing capitalization of other racial and ethnic identifiers such as Latino, Asian American, and Native American. 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.” Daniszewski clarified that the protests were not the reason for the change; instead, it comes 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.” AP is also discussing other terms such as “Indigenous and people of color,” as well as whether or not to capitalize the term “white.”
