I’m a Black Scholar Who Studies Race. Here’s Why I Capitalize ‘White.’

I haven’t always capitalized the ‘W’ in my own writing, but I do now

Eve L. Ewing
ZORA
Published in
6 min readJul 2, 2020

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A photo illustration that has “Black” with three lines under B, and “White” with three lines under W, for capitalization.

In recent days, multiple well-respected journalistic outlets have announced to much fanfare that, having reflected on the rapidly shifting American racial landscape, they will be capitalizing “Black” as designations for people and…

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Eve L. Ewing
ZORA
Writer for

Sociologist of race & education at the University of Chicago. Author of 1919, Ghosts in the Schoolyard, Electric Arches, and a bunch of Marvel comics.