Stephen L. Carter, Columnist

How We Got to Capital-B ‘Black’

America’s long conversation about race has often stumbled over which specific words to use.

July 1, 2020 at 5:00 PM UTC

Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a professor of law at Yale University and author of “Invisible: The Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster.”

Maybe some people are starting to listen.
Photographer: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images

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So black is now Black. In the wake of the protests following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and too many others, editors everywhere have decreed with sudden and remarkable unanimity that the formerly common adjective referring to African Americans will henceforth be a proper adjective.

I’m all for the change. Yes, as a card-carrying Grammar Curmudgeon I have a few curmudgeonly concerns. But before we get to that part, let’s do a little history.