Reply #16: Not relevant to the incident in any way at all, but rather in the reporting

[Obamanaut]

of it.

The assailants are the bad guys, and are reported as (b)lack, thus diminishing them in the eye of the reader, whereas the girlfriend gets upper case As, because she is the victim and is more deserving of recognition.

If we read the article, the assailants are from the same neighborhood, and protesting the outsider messing with their women, so we can assume that they are likewise African American as well (they were listed as black, after all.)

Edited to add this: Opinions vary as to Black vs black, African American, people of color, etc., and here's a different one

<snip>It seems to me that the attempt to classify Blacks in America is a difficult and 'touchy' subject. Depending on who you ask, a different term is in order. There are those who prefer African American, those who prefer Black, those who prefer Negro, and even some who prefer people of color.

When it comes to my personal preference, I refer to myself as a Black American. Ultimately, I'd like to be called a Nigerian-American, or an Ethipian-American, South African American - you get the picture. The problem is that so many American Black people have no genealogy that links them to a nation or a specific African culture. Therefore, such specific identification is imperative.

The term African American is inaccurate because according to modern thought, we all are of an African descent. So, such a term is all inclusvie as well. Black appears to be the most accurate, but even black is a far cry off from describing Black Americans.

Al Sharpton has no problem with the term people of color. I do. People of Color implies that white is the standard, but white is a color as well. I would even contend that the title for the NAACP (National Association for the the Advancement of Colored People) is a bit outdated in that colored is offensive to me.<more at link>

http://thebriefing2005.blogspot.com/2005/11/african-american-black-negro.html