Comment by crazygringo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by crazygringo | Hacker News Reader

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Actual answer:

Until recently, most publications didn't capitalize "white" or "black", but capitalized everything else ("Indian", "Native American", "Asian", etc.).

Recently, there has been increasing recognition that Black isn't just a (lowercase) skin color, but an identity like the rest and thus ought to be given the same capital-letter-recognition "Black". A large number of publications have made this change in the past couple years.

The reason "white" still isn't capitalized is because many people are uncomfortable recognizing white identity -- because in the past and still ongoing, that is often linked to white supremacism.

So as long as capitalizing "White" continues to carry (even unintended) associations of white supremacism, it's probable that most publications will keep it lowercase.

To be clear, I'm not expressing any opinions here as to whether this is right or wrong or desirable or not (edit: or even whether white identity exists). This is just a description of the reasons for things currently.

"because many people are uncomfortable recognizing white identity"

There is no unified "white" identity. I am white, my ethnicity is Romanian. There is no shared identity between me, and for example someone with German heritage. So to capitalize "White" is silly in my eyes.

edit: unified may have been a poor choice here. "Shared" is what I was getting at. Of course people across the US have different experiences and opinions.

There's no unified black identity either though. There are millions of black people in both USA and Africa, but their cultures and lived experiences are so incredibly different. Not to mention the diversity within the country.

...black people universally get discriminated in a systemic fashion in the US based on their appearance. This is not unique to any one state.

Obviously people in different states lead different lives. It's still possible to have a shared identity through facing similar struggles and discrimination.

Just because I grew up in IL and my cousin grew up in CA doesn't mean we can't have a shared identity as Romanian-Americans either.

edit: I have amended this and my parent post to clarify I meant a shared experience, not a unified one.

To be clear, neither is there any unified "Black" identity, any unified "Native American" identity, etc.

Identities are generally fluid and reflect matters of degrees of commonality and shared experience.

In your case, there are certainly some things you share in common with Germans, e.g. you share an Indo-European linguistic heritage which you don't share, for example, with someone who has Japanese heritage.

Of course that's simply an academic point -- you're free to feel whatever degree of identity affinity you like, which is what matters. Identity is constructed.

"Identities are generally fluid and reflect matters of degrees of commonality and shared experience."

Well sure, and this is what I believe is happening with the Black identity. Unified may have been the wrong word to convey what I mean.

I have zero reason to feel anything like that with a "white" identity, germans being just an example. There is no real anti-white discrimination in a systemic sense like what black people face, so I see no reason that white would warrant a capitalization. There is just no similar shared identity.

To follow up on this, there is no unified "black" identity either, but there is a distinct Black identity especially among African-Americans. This is in large part because of the way their identities, cultures, languages, and traditions were forcibly stripped away from them upon enslavement. African-American cultures thus distinguished themselves with combinations of cultural elements preserved from African nations, as well as elements of mainstream American cultures due to the extreme pressure to "assimilate," later immigration from places such as Caribbean nations, and newer elements developed uniquely by African-Americans.

The Washington Post also capitalizes the “W” in white. They list their rationale here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2020/07/29/washington-post...

As a white person, I agree with the staff of the Post. It would be conspicuous and demeaning to capitalize every demographic identifier except “white.” White Americans also have a distinct cultural identity, extending back to the writings and observations of Alexis de Tocqueville, which is more than just the actions of white Americans’ worst examples.

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