Language Matters
Students tend to think of grammatical decisions as purely technical-- "Which is the right way to do it? we hear them asking.
In fact, the words and punctuation we use to describe our ethnic, racial, gendered and cultural selves deserves significant thought. Journalists and editors as well as students and teachers spend time thinking about it. The articles presented here are two authentic examples of argumentation that are relevant not only to this website, but also to the way your students will use language in the future.
Although most newspapers now capitalize the word "Black" when referring to race, there is disagreement about whether and why to capitalize w/White. The Columbia Journalism Review (see https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php) says don’t capitalize the w and the style guide from the Washington Post says use the capital letter (see https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/22/why-white-should-be-capitalized/).
What about the term “mixed race” or multiracial?” This excellent piece from the NPR’s program Code-Switch gives us all lots to think about: