Black/black (n.)

(1) These are acceptable and respected terms. (2) Do not refer to color or ethnicity when it is irrelevant to your material, as it most often is. Vivian Jenkins Nelsen (New Voices in the Media) says: "Persons of color are usually 'over-identified' as 'African-American writers' or 'African-American dentists,' when they would rather be identified as a dentist or a writer who is an African American. White people are 'under-identified' because most stories assume whiteness as the norm. ... write 'white' in front of every reference to a person who is not identified as a person of color, and you will see how artificial it feels." (3) Identify people the way they identify themselves (black/Black, African American, person of color) and accept that this may vary from group to group. (4) Current style generally lowercases "black," but some writers and editors prefer it capitalized. Note particularly that since 2019 the National Association of Black Journalists (joined by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists) has been strongly recommending capitalization of the word "Black" in news coverage and reporting about Black people, Black communities, Black culture, Black institutions, etc. They also recommend that whenever a color is used to appropriately describe someone, it should be capitalized, including White and Brown. Follow their guidelines whenever possible. See also African American, Afro-American, antiracism, black/black-, black-and-white, denigrate, Negress, niggardly, niggling, nonracist, nonwhite, people/person of color, the n-word, white man's burden.