So some semi-literate, right-wing troll who calls himself mr cancer and obviously doesn't believe in capitalizing anything except the word Dickhead, actually asks an important question.
The reason I capitalize Black when the word is used to describe African-Americans or people of African ancestry (I didn't capitalize brown) and not white is, it's now standard journalism practice*.
Black and Latino (or Latinx correspond to nationality or nationhood. White (and brown) simply refer to skin color. There is no shared common white history, culture, language, or historic territory.
“We agree that white people’s skin color plays into systemic inequalities and injustices, and we want our journalism to robustly explore these problems,” John Daniszewski, the AP’s vice president for standards, said in a memo to staff back in July. “But capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs.”
Now that I think about it, Mr. Cancer is a perfect name for a white supremacist since white supremacy is the main cancer eating away at democracy.
So some semi-literate, right-wing troll who calls himself mr cancer and obviously doesn't believe in capitalizing anything except the word Dickhead, actually asks an important question.
The reason I capitalize Black when the word is used to describe African-Americans or people of African ancestry (I didn't capitalize brown) and not white is, it's now standard journalism practice*.
Black and Latino (or Latinx correspond to nationality or nationhood. White (and brown) simply refer to skin color. There is no shared common white history, culture, language, or historic territory.
“We agree that white people’s skin color plays into systemic inequalities and injustices, and we want our journalism to robustly explore these problems,” John Daniszewski, the AP’s vice president for standards, said in a memo to staff back in July. “But capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs.”
Now that I think about it, Mr. Cancer is a perfect name for a white supremacist since white supremacy is the main cancer eating away at democracy.
* See "Why We're Capitalizing Black?" (NYT) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/05/insider/capitalized-black.html
* "Capital B for Black" (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/capital-b-for-black/