Rendering Whiteness Visible

Abstract

The recent uprising for racial justice marked a pivotal shift in national and global debates on race. One enduring legacy is that the language we use to speak, think, and label people is consequential. Most style guides that previously called for lowercasing Black altered their positions. This letter to the editors urges the American Journal of International Law (AJIL) to join those organizations that have also changed their policies to capitalize White. AJIL currently follows the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook’s guidance regarding capitalization. The AP’s statement in July 2020, “Why we will lowercase white,” asserts that: “White people generally do not share the same history and culture, or the experience of being discriminated against because of skin color.” This rationale misses the mark. In Cheryl Harris’s article “Whiteness as Property,” she demonstrates the material and other benefits conferred on those racialized as White. The process of racialization does not only manifest through discrimination. It also occurs through a shared relative position of privilege as compared to another group(s). My hope is that AJIL will join the likes of Kristen Mack and John Palfrey of the MacArthur Foundation, who in “Capitalizing Black and White: Grammatical Justice and Equity” recognize that language “itself is radical. It can be used to either support or challenge the systemic racism we seek to dismantle.” AJIL need not wait for the AP Stylebook’s guidance to evolve before reconsidering its policies. Instead, AJIL’s decision should be informed by the normative choice to further anti-subordination efforts and by the need to take corrective action to the Journal’s historic aversion to explicitly engaging with race. AJIL must continue to reckon with its own complicity in rendering Whiteness invisible with a commitment to ensuring to do better prospectively. Capitalizing White is one of many concrete steps the Journal can take.

Keywords: Race, Racial Justice, Racism, Capitalization, White, Grammar, Language, Writing, Style Guide