As a parent of young children, I consider education to be tremendously important. Young people need to learn the fundamental building blocks of being a well-informed and productive citizen. Reading and writing is an especially important part of that. Good grammar helps people communicate with professionalism in a way that other people can understand. However, despite my appreciation for the necessity of grammar, I cannot appreciate academic elites who try to hijack grammar as the latest vehicle for their radical social justice agenda.
The Associated Press announced that they would start capitalizing the “b” in “black” but not the “w” in “white” when referring to skin color. This is obviously baffling to any traditional grammarian. Although many Christians show reverence to by capitalizing deity with respect to our Heavenly Father, we otherwise maintain neutrality when it comes to grammar. I may not like North Korea, but I won’t start writing it lowercase out of spite. Yet, the Associated Press decided to weaponize grammar by capitalizing “black” but not “white.”
Their reasoning for this move is downright laughable. They said that they wanted to recognize the “shared sense of history, identity and community” of black people. However, they explained that “capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs.” This is a classic tactic of the left: shut down debate by calling someone a white supremacist. As far as they are concerned, it’s no longer an open discussion about grammar, but a literal black and white choice between either honoring black people or being a white supremacist.
Focusing on supposedly racist grammar is not a meaningful discussion about helping minorities in our nation. If we really want to help black people, we should stop the threat to jobs in black communities caused by illegal immigrant labor. If we want to help black people, we should unleash the free market in underprivileged communities. If we want to help black people, we should adopt school vouchers to let parents pull their kids out of failing schools. That would be real progress for black Americans. Chasing down the racist grammar boogeyman is not the answer.
