Dear Love,
During the summer of 2020, the Associated Press (AP) updated the writing style rules to now capitalize ‘B’ in Black when referring to people in a racial, ethnic, or cultural context.
Although most Black writers, curators, activists, and advocates have been doing so for a long time, our work and words aren’t always accepted as mainstream or rules that apply to everyone.
AP’s vice president of standards, John Daniszewski explains “an essential and shared sense of history, identity, and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa.” “The lowercase black is a color, not a person.”
This post is just a reminder that influencers, organizations, businesses, and everything and everyone in between needs to follow Beyonce’s advice and get in formation and make the necessary changes.
Loves, don’t let anyone lowercase you. You’re a capital B, Black woman.
Prove to me you got some coordination, ’cause I slay. Slay trick or you get eliminated
beyonce, formation
As a diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging strategist here are my tips on ensuring that you are prepared.
1) #Leadership make sure you update your teams and do an audit of your internal and external communication documents
2) Those who curate and manage social media campaigns, make sure you take note and make sure everyone on the team is aware
3) #Marketing teams need to check your new decks and internal content that you use for sales, recruitment, etc.
4) Provide this information and rule change as a memo to the entire organization so that people can make changes in their emails and other written work
In other words, there’s not an area in any organization that should be unaware of the rules. Don’t go into 2022 slipping and out of formation.
xOxO
