OPINION:
Since when do we capitalize adjectives that are not the first words of sentences? There seems to be a relatively new, woke standard of capitalizing the word “black” when it describes the color of a person or persons. And quite recently, we re also seeing some “news” writers capitalizing the word “white” in similar cases.
I understand that if the descriptive word is being used as a noun (e.g., using the word “Blacks” instead of “black people”), it should be capitalized because it may be considered a proper noun. But that’s not the issue here. The results of a quick online search for “Why are black and white capitalized?” inform us that this peculiarity is entirely political without regard to proper grammar — and certainly without regard to logic. (Some go so far as to try rationalizing only capitalizing “black” but not “white.”)
I certainly hope that Washington Times writers do not follow suit. But what about the AP and other sources that appear in The Times? As expected, these reports capitalize the descriptives 100% of the time. I am not in favor of The Times editing these stories to make corrections, but I would love to see “(sic)” or something similar next to every incorrectly capitalized adjective.
ED BUTTARAZZI
Vienna, Virginia
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