If you're in publishing, chances are you have a stylebook to refer to. One of the most widely used is the Associated Press guidebook, which is what we're supposed to use here at Twitchy. I break the rules, though, by lowercasing both black and white. The Washington Post, curiously, chose to capitalize both.
I can't bring myself to capitalize only black because of the specious reasoning the AP used to reach that conclusion. Here's how they reached that difficult decision back in 2020:
The AP decision to continue lowercasing the term white in racial, ethnic and cultural senses was more complicated than last month’s decision to capitalize Black. #APStyleChat (1/5)
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) July 29, 2020
We heard many reasons to capitalize Black. Arguments include: People who are Black have strong historical and cultural commonalities (and differences, of course). In many places, that includes the shared experience of discrimination due solely to skin color. #APStyleChat (2/5)
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) July 29, 2020
What strong historical and cultural commonalities do an African American from New York City and a Somalian have?
We found, at this time, less support for capitalizing white and no clearly accepted argument as to why to do so. White people generally do not share similar history and culture, or the experience of being discriminated against because of skin color. #APStyleChat (3/5)
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) July 29, 2020
White people do not not share a similar history and culture, if you exclude all of Western Civilization. OK.
I've done a few posts today on illegal immigration, and that's the term I usually use: illegal immigrant. I wrote a post earlier on Fox News' Jennifer Griffin using "undocumented immigrants" to describe illegal immigrants who haven't committed a crime. I suppose I should start using illegal aliens, as that's the new directive from the Trump administration, reportedly. The AP Stylebook? It officially dropped the term illegal immigrant in 2013.
BREAKING: New Trump directive bans use of term "migrants", mandates use of term "illegal aliens"
— Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) January 22, 2025
*We will no longer refer to aliens as migrants, noncitizens, etc. The legal term is alien and as law enforcement we will use the legal term."
Cool.
Honest question:
— Greggory Wroblewski (@greggory_3) January 22, 2025
Besides being a symbolic victory to “own the libs,” how will this change in nomenclature affect day-to-day policy at the border?
Policy flows downhill from language.
— Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) January 22, 2025
Ask yourself why the liberals try so hard to try to redefine terms.
Exactly. If you call someone "undocumented," you mean they're here illegally without using the word "illegal." We're supposed to purge the word illegal from our vocabularies, and then our legal documents.
Language matters.
— Hampton Comes Alive! (@LarryHampton) January 22, 2025
Sorry, the time for pretending and hallucinating is over.
— 𝔸𝕝𝕒𝕟 ℕ𝕠𝕧𝕒𝕔𝕤 (@CodeWriter23) January 22, 2025
Orwell taught us how important language is to frame reality.
— DrRightVoice (@masdoc1) January 22, 2025
I prefer "Criminal invaders"
— Poelock Joe 🇺🇸 (@PoelockJoe) January 22, 2025
Anything but "undocumented persons."
Make words have meaning again!
— We Are The Republic (@1marshalls) January 22, 2025
Illegal alien is the legal term. I'll try to train myself to use it, although I like illegal immigrants. As long as it has the word "illegal" in it, I'm good with it.
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