At CJR, we capitalize “Black,” but not “white,” when referring to racial groups. The killings in Charleston, South Carolina, heartbreakingly elicit another focus on race. In our case, not about race ...

The decision to spell 'Black' with a capital 'B' and lowercase 'white' in a racial context is well-intended, but it may be doing more harm than good.

I refer to the practice of journalists using capitalized black and lower-cased white in every news story. You’ll notice that I’m not using capital j for journalists.

I say “restored,” because that capital B appeared in the 1970s. I used it myself. Then editors, uncomfortable with both the odd combination of uppercase “Black” and lowercase “white ...