Whether the terms black and white, when used in terms of race, refer to a person's skin colour or an element of their culture is a topic of debate. However, we all know that no person's skin colour is truly black or white, nor does the lightness or darkness of our skin tell us much about the culture with which we identify.
However, Black Lives Matter has led to many important discussions—one of which refers to the question of whether or not we should capitalise ‘black’, and whether ‘white’ should also be treated in the same manner. Many media outlets such as the New York Times and the Associated Press have made the move to capitalise ‘black’ out of a recognition of ‘a shared culture’. They have also opted to leave ‘white’ as lowercase, stating that white refers to people with light-coloured skin, especially of European descent and, unlike black, is a physical description of people from many cultures rather than a reflection of shared cultures and experiences.
Still others argue that, while capitalising black signifies respect for black culture, white doesn't deserve equal treatment in language until the wrongs against blacks have been righted. In contrast, others argue that white people don't deserve the lower case ‘w’ because it sets them up as being the default or the norm, sitting comfortably outside the conversation of race.
However, racism cannot be battled with more racism. Divisive wrongs cannot be responded to with more division.
Furthermore, to suggest that the cultures of white people are more diverse than those of the many black people around the world is to deny the richness of black cultures and heritage. There are more than 3000 tribes and indigenous languages across Africa's 54 countries alone. Because of the history of slavery in the United States, many of the black people residing there do not have a specific African nation to link their heritage to and likely bear the surname of their ancestor's white slave owner. The argument for capitalising black is to recognise this particular history and the shared culture that has resulted—however, this excludes the many blacks both in the United States and around the world, who don't share this African American history but are still black. There are many blacks still in Africa and in Caribbean countries, or who have just recently come to a Western country from one of these countries, who are just as ‘black’ as those who were robbed of their heritage when their ancestors were brought to America on slave ships. Still more issues arise when considering the many people who don't identify as black or white—should their colours also be capitalised?
At the Journal of Paramedic Practice, we have made the conscious decision to keep black, white, brown, etc all in lowercase. Not only do we believe in equality, but most of our usage of black actually does refer to skin colour (rather than culture) as we concern ourselves with healthcare and treatment, which may differ depending on skin pigment regardless of identified race. Ethnic backgrounds also play a role in care but all people from all geographic regions are capitalised, as they should be.
Ultimately, we are all human and if anyone wants to capitalise a race, perhaps the human race should be the one at the centre of the discussion.