In an 1878 editorial titled Spell it with a Capital, Ferdinand Lee Barnett, the founder of a weekly newspaper that brought Black issues to the mainstream (similar to The Voice in the UK), highlighted that, ‘… the failure of white people to capitalise “Negro” was to show disrespect to, stigmatise, “fasten a badge of inferiority” on Black people.’ The Pew Research Centre – a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world – noted ‘Black people have gone from being called “Slaves” (1790) to “black” (1850) to “negro” (1900) to “Negro” (1930) to “Negro or Black” (1970) to “Black or Negro” (1980)’.Īnd Black people have been forced to conform and contort themselves into these harmful and limiting racial categorisations. The uncomfortable reality is that for centuries, the fate of Black identification has, with minor exception, been left to white people to juggle however they see fit. Whereas black with a lowercase ‘b’ refers to the actual colour, like a crayon.

To capitalise Black is to recognise an ethnic identity.įor clarity, Black with a capital ‘B’ refers to people of the African and Caribbean diaspora.

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