should first letter of racial labels be capitalized (e.g. white, black)

[Used and Abused]

Should the first letter in race descriptions be in uppercase and if so, is it offensive not to do so?

[SteppingRazor]

1. No and no

:hi:

Speaking from a purely grammarian point of view.

[pattim]

2. Personally, I believe so,

only so as to distinguish from imaginary humans who are actually the color 'white' and 'black.' ;)

But realistically, that tends to look a bit quaint, like when they used to Capitalize every Noun and many Verbs which the Author intended to Write. And I have no idea if it's offensive one way or the other.

[Inland]

3. No, although the problem only appears because

nations and continents are capitalized, so you get black, African American, hispanic, Mexican.

There's no good reason, and do whatever Strunk and White tell you.

[shenmue]

4. I don't think so

There are too many layers of meaning within each label. Also, if a person comes from a heritage of many different backgrounds, or if they don't know what their ancestry is, the terms can become very vague.

[Taxloss]

5. I once worked for a black newspaper in the UK, and its style was "no".

Lowercase is better.

(PS the paper was The Voice.)

[Blue_In_AK]

6. I don't capitalize black and white...

...but for some reason I DO capitalize Native (as in Native Alaskans), maybe to distinguish them from white or black Alaskans who just happened to have been born here. My daughters are natives but not Natives.