Black And White

Or should I say, “black and white.” It turns out that, when one is referring to the racial information of various citizens of America, the decision to capitalize is somewhat controversial.

I cherish my time on the blog site, “We Are Respectable Negroes.” Chauncey DeVega, the pseudonymous writer of the blog, is a fourtyish academic who teaches subjects related to race and culture at a mid-western university. He’s a lucid, generous minded man who values diversity on the site and has tolerated my sometimes misguided comments for many years now. He tends to step back a bit and let other commenters school me when the opportunity arises, like it did recently with the black and white thing.


Thanks Nomad

When I write in English I consider it to be “my” language to a degree that can become unwarranted. For instance, I tend to capitalize more than the style books recommend. I do this for the sake of Clarity and Readability, to place an emphasis, as it were, in print where I might provide an audio cue in speech. Or maybe to call attention to the key words. Either way, I do it. I’m confident that this is my prerogative, because language is not a static concept, it is a living, breathing, ever changing thing. Changed by our usage, individual and collective. So, my English.

One example of my liberal use of the capital letter was in my usage of “Black” and “White.” I say “was,” because Nomad is the one who pointed out to me that it was a bad idea. Nomad suggested that I stick with black and white, not perhaps at the risk of my immortal soul, but at least in order to avoid some misunderstandings with my black fellow travelers.

My habit arose from the use of “Black” more than anything relating to whiteness. In my opinion, America blacks are so much more than just black, and so deserving of respect for their amazing accomplishments in surviving life in America, that Black had a much more dignified look to it. Black (small “b”) is a color; my thinking was that Blacks were a people, and a great one, not just a color.

Maybe the term “Black,” in a vacuum, isn’t so bad, not objectionable in itself. Nomad suggested that I was really out on the thin ice when I also referred to “White” Americans. Writing about “White” anything, he said, and I believe him, would be read by many people as having been written by a racist, White Supremacist individual. So it became something similar to ethics violation in the law, avoid them, sure, but it is also important to avoid even the appearance of them, just. Certainly it’s not a brush that I’d like to be tarred with. I’d only gone with “White” to achieve equivalence with “Black.” So they both had to go, it seemed.


The Research Situation

I went to my Concise Oxford Dictionary. Not the Unabridged, but still very complete, with almost two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand words , full etymological information and usage notes. The Oxford is an English publication, but eminently fair when it comes to Colonial English.

Black is black, small “b,” when applied to a racial group, and is “the preferred term in Britain; in America the preferred term in African American.” African American is capitalized, of course, being both African and American.

Colored, interestingly, is given as “colored (or Colored).” So with colored, you’re on your own, it’s discretionary.

Negro is capitalized, as is Caucasian. “Negro,” however, is considered “old-fashioned or even offensive.” So I guess the smart money is to stay away from that one.

My reading on the subject has not been exhaustive, but I can tell you that W.E.B. DuBois sticks with “black” and “colored.”


My Bony Old, Abrasive White Ass

Incidentally, I have never cared for the term “African American.” Probably due to the fact that many, if not most Africans, the ones in Africa anyway, seem to treat American blacks with less than fraternal devotion. African American seems more appropriate when describing President Obama, or my daughter-in-law for that matter. I love them both dearly, and in their day-to-day lives then share many experiences with American blacks, but they have very little history in common.

Maybe it would be a mistake to use the terms “black Americans” and “American blacks” interchangeably. The former would include the many recently arrived Africans, fine people who have chosen to help us build Twenty-First-Century America; the later would not. That would leave African American for the Africans. How would that be? Boy, I can be annoying without hardly trying.


Conclusion

I’ll be sticking with “black” for things like black culture, black people, black music, etc. I will be continuing to avoid “colored,” which I have always thought sounded condescending, and “Negro,” which I agree is old fashioned. In the course of considering this matter I have wondered where the future will take us in terminology for various racial groups, but I decline to share my speculations.

Thanks again, Nomad, for the gentle schooling. As you said, we Irishmen have to stick together. (Proud to claim you, brother!)