Harold Ross must be spinning in his grave, tearing out leaves from his copy of Fowler’s Modern English Usage.
With little fanfare, The New Yorker followed suit with other periodicals and adopted a new capital-letter convention: plumping the lower-case “b” in “blacks” to “Blacks.” The style change was implemented in the hebdomadal journal’s July 20, 2020 issue. It was not evident in the previous issue, a doublized special dated for July 6 and 13.
Unlike other papers and newsweeklies, The New Yorker didn’t announce the change in a cloying justification, slavering for a smidgeon of approval from sensitive Black Lives Matter–supporters. Most publications did: “We believe this style best conveys elements of shared history and identity, and reflects our goal to be respectful of all the people and communities we cover,” said New York Times executive editor Dean Banquet. “These changes align with long-standing capitalization of other racial and ethnic identifiers such as Latino, Asian American and Native American,” wrote John Daniszewski, vice president for standards at the Associated Press. “When people are offended by how we describe their community, we have to listen,” pleaded Cristina Silva, relaying the move on behalf of USA Today.
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