Fiddling around with linguistics does nothing to eradicate racism

Up front, let’s concede that this column’s peg is of nominal importance. Yet last week’s announcement that The New York Times will hereafter capitalise “black” when “describing people and cultures of African origin” is nevertheless a window on the genuflections of the moment.

[I wonder if this will apply to reports of black crime -- JR]

In a statement explaining the policy change, the editorial decision is portrayed as a direct result of the George Floyd protests last month. The typographical tweak is an inexpensive – one is tempted to say cheap – gesture, if only to soothe the products of university identity politics who’ve all but taken over America’s purported “paper of record”. The upper-casing of “black” is an act of relatively effortless pandering, both to young, woke staff, and to the larger Black Lives Matter movement. What the change does not do, of course, is remotely improve the lot of black people in real terms or diminish prejudice

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