Amiel Handelsman
1 min readApr 16, 2022

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Yes, I’m with you on why “Black” instead of “black.” I’ve noticed many major publications have started capitalizing the B in the past year or two. In particular, many white-identified people have switched to this, though I think most don’t know the history you allude to. To generalize, whereas many black-identified people embrace “Black” with pride and as a way of honoring their parents and older generations, white-identified liberals and progressives more often interpret this to refer to a “race” of people who have been discriminated against and harmed; the acknowledgment of cultural richness is often missing. And it causes them to get confused between the true cultural and false racial meaning — a confusion less likely to happen with “Black American.” Again generalizing. This is why I prefer “Black American” unless a particular person asks me to refer to them otherwise. In any case, thanks for this exchange.

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Amiel Handelsman
Amiel Handelsman

Written by Amiel Handelsman

Executive coach, Dad, husband, reimagining American identity, and taking other fiercely nuanced stands on the world's big messes. More at amielhandelsman.com.

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