The word “white” is not capitalized either, despite it “connoting ethnicity.” “African American,” on the other hand, is always capitalized.

Just thought I’d point that out.

Vincent:

“White” should also carry a capital “w”. The word refers to people, not bedsheets. Proper names should begin w/ caps, like Anthony, Mayor Jones, Pittsburgh, and Greek.

BCB

Black can’t be capitalized because it’s still too general. You can most definitely say what a Communist would think about some point of social organization, but with blackfolks, like Bob told Helen, there just ain’t no tellin’.

Black as in Black Nationalist, yeah. But how many blacks are Black Nationalist?

Bijan:

I respectfully disagree. To me, both “black” and “white” are merely physical descriptors. They may refer to people, but so do words such as “doctor” or “achiever” or “smoker”.

In German, those words would be capitalized. By the rules of English, they are not.

As you rightly note, “Italian” and “Hawaiian,” “Ethiopian,” “Chinese,” are capitalized. They refer to very specific places.

“Black” and “white” just identify skin pigment, and have no more place (in English, at least) being capitalized than other physical descriptors like “fatty” or “blonde”.

Cobb:

As for “communist,” I think it should only be capitalized if the person in question is actually a member of the Communist Party.

Just as, say, we wouldn’t necessarily capitalize the word “democrat” if we were talking generally (”Iraqi democrats are trying to cobble together a functional government.”) but would capitalize it when identifying someone who is a member of the Democratic Party in the United States (”Arnold Schwartzenegger is not a Democrat”.)

Bratty college students, by the same token, might fancy themselves to be “communists,” but it’s doubtful that many of them are actual Communists.

Cobb and Vincent:

Then “African-American” shouldn’t begin w/ a cap, as the terms are synonymous. As for the rationale that the lower case usage is due to complexion/color, “Negro, colored, Black, and African-American”, in a U.S. context, refer to exactly the same demographic. May not seem specific (in that Sidney Poitier, Barack Obama, Soledad O’Brien, Roberto Clemente and Lenny Kravitz, despite their varied parentages and the nationalities of their parents, all “fit” the term), but it’s the standard usage on employment applications, census, and in news print.

“Chinese” may refer to a place, yet fourth and fifth generation Chinese-Americans are referenced with a beginning cap.

It is “white” that is rather vague.

BCB