Читать книгу Antiracist Counseling in Schools and Communities - Группа авторов - Страница 11

Racism and anti-Blackness permeate every aspect of life in the United States and beyond—including the language used to describe people. Throughout history, the use of dehumanizing names and the refusal to manipulate language used to refer to Black adults (e.g., “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” “Dr.,” “Professor”) have perpetuated racist ideas about which groups are inferior and superior. For these reasons, it was essential to address the capitalization of “Black” and “Brown” before writing this book. I agonized over whether to capitalize “Black” and “Brown” in the text. Many of the chapter authors shared the same agony. In my chapters, I capitalize “Black” and “Brown” and use these terms to describe the unified and shared oppression and political interests of people of African descent; people who identify as Latinx, Hispanic, or Asian; and people from an Indigenous population. Some of the chapter authors refer to “people of color” rather than “Black” and “Brown” people and some capitalize “white.” Some of the authors use BIPOC (pronounced “buy-pock”), an inclusive term that stands for “Black, Indigenous, and people of color.” It is intended to combat the erasure of these diverse cultures. The inconsistencies in our use of these terms illustrate the diverse viewpoints on which labels are most appropriate. Regardless, the term “minority” is avoided in this book because this label lacks specificity, denotes inferiority, and neglects an overall sense of humanity.

It is noteworthy that many U.S. publishers and authors have adjusted their practices around capitalizing “Black” and “Brown.” Many years ago, Kailin (2002) argued that comparing Black and white racial labels is flawed because “white” does not denote a particular ethnicity or nationality. Black, in contrast, represents an ethnicity describing peoples of African descent. She stated,

One of the reasons people of the African diaspora may call themselves Black rather than a specific ethnicity is because their true ethnicity was robbed from them during slavery when all attempts were made to erase the history and identity of the African peoples. (Kailin, 2002, p. xxi)

Hence, “Black” denotes nationality, whereas “white” denotes skin color. In June 2020, the Associated Press changed its usage rules to capitalize the word “Black” when used in the context of race and culture but will continue its practice of not capitalizing “white.” The New York Times followed suit and has now changed its policy to capitalize “Black.” It is important to note that the term “African American” is not wrong, and some prefer it. However, I believe that capitalizing “Black” and “Brown” is desirable because these descriptors are more inclusive of ethnicities united by shared oppression, race, geography, and culture.