black / white (racial labels)

Whether the racial labels take a capital.

Treat Black and White the same: capitalize both, or lowercase both. The two labels name people; write them the same way. See also racial and ethnic labels.

Examples

Use The roster lists Black and White families.

Avoid The roster lists Black and white families.

Use The roster lists black and white families.

Avoid The roster lists White and black families.

Since about 2020, many news and magazine outlets capitalize Black and leave white lowercase. Many academic, medical, and government styles capitalize Black and White. Lowercase for both labels was the earlier mainstream default.