R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find Out What it Means to Me

Accurately identifying a person’s race or ethnicity can be tricky. So it’s nice to know that our friends at the Associated Press not only make recommendations but update them as language, culture and sensitivities evolve. This past week AP sent out a slew of updates about a variety of topics, several of which addressed race and ethnicity. Each came in a separate e-mail update and the following are exact quotes. Notice the use of hyphens (“Asian-American” but “Native American”) and even capitalization.  Capitalize the proper names of nationalities, peoples, races, tribes, etc.: Arab, Arabic, African, American, Caucasian, Cherokee, Chinese (both singular and plural), Eskimo (plural Eskimos), French Canadian, Japanese (singular and plural), Jew, Jewish, Nordic, Sioux, Swede, etc. Asian-American: A person of Asian birth or descent who lives in the U.S. When possible, refer to a person's country of origin. For example: Filipino-American or Indian-American. Follow the person's preference. Chicano: Sometimes used by Mexican-Americans in the Southwest. Not interchangeable with Mexican-American. Use only if a person's preference.    Latino: Often the preferred term for a person from -- or whose ancestors were from -- a Spanish-speaking land or culture or from Latin America. Latina is the feminine form. Follow the person's preference. Use a more specific identification when possible, such as Cuban, Puerto Rican, Brazilian or Mexican-American. Native American: Acceptable for those in the U.S. Follow the person's preference. Where possible, be precise and use the name of the tribe: He is a Navajo commissioner. In stories about American Indians, such words or terms as wampum, warpath, powwow, teepee, brave, squaw, etc., can be disparaging and offensive.  black: Acceptable for a person of the black race. (Use Negro only in names of organizations or in quotations.)    African-American: Acceptable for an American black person of African descent. Black is also acceptable. The terms are not necessarily interchangeable. People from Caribbean nations, for example, generally refer to themselves as Caribbean-American. Follow a person's preference.

Note: Not only should you have a relatively current AP Stylebook on your shelf, or on a colleague's shelf or in a common area, but it's very helpful to subscribe (which you can do here). Updates like I've just described are sent to you automatically and you can look up things in a split second on its Web site. (I'm not getting a kickback by making this suggestion.)

Comments

[kevin]

I think we should do our best *not* to identify a person's race, unless absolutely necessary. From my limited understanding, race is not a meaningful biological concept, and we should do what we can to discourage this kind of tribalism and division. It's great to celebrate different cultures, but why divide people by skin color and not hair color, or blood type?

[bbebop]

i noticed some weird things among the explanations. the first is the jarring non-capitalization of the term 'black.' the word shouldn't be capitalized within a sentence, but given it's location, capitalization is required. i mean, you capitalize the word 'capitalize' in the first bullet...

second, it's my understanding there is no such thing as "the black race," so that explanation just seems wacky.

finally, what do you call a white south african who emigrates to the united states? south african american? i've heard white south africans refer to themselves as 'african,' which would make such a person, presumably, an african american.

and where's hispanic? it would be nice to know if it's out of favor.

[Dan Santow]

Bbebop, AP only capitalizes those words in its AP Stylebook that are supposed to be uppercase all the time, so it goes from “black” to “Black Muslims” to “blacout, brownout.” Also, that AP didn’t update the entry for “Hispanic” doesn’t mean it’s out of favor at all. Currently, the entry for “Hispanic” is as follows: “A person from – or whose ancestors were from – a Spanish-speaking land or culture. Latino and Latina are sometimes preferred. Follow the person's preference. Use a more specific identification when possible, such as Cuban, Puerto Rican or Mexican-American. See Latino, nationalities and races, and race entries.”