CSRC Press Makes Policy Change for Words Identifying Race and Ethnicity

For many years the CSRC’s style guide for its publications has recommended lowercasing black, brown and indigenous when referring to race or ethnicity. As demonstrations in support of Black Lives Matter exploded across the country this past May, the editorial team at the CSRC, which includes CSRC director Chon A. Noriega and CSRC associate director Charlene Villaseñor Black, concluded that it was time to make a change. The style guide now recommends the capitalization of these terms—Black, Brown, Indigenous—unless the lowercase form is more appropriate in context. These three terms join those that have always been capitalized: Latinx and Chicanx (and their variants), as well as Native American, Mexican American, African American, Asian American, and other words that describe national origin. This policy affects not only the CSRC’s printed publications, including its journal Aztlán, but also the CSRC Newsletter and the CSRC’s website. Whether to capitalize similar terms in CSRC publications, including white, will be left to our authors.