Race, Class & Communities

WUNC Updating Style Guide To Capitalize "Black"

WUNC | By Brent Wolfe

Published June 19, 2020 at 3:59 PM EDT

Effective immediately, WUNC will begin capitalizing the word “Black” when referring to people’s ethnicity or culture.

WUNC joins other media outlets such as The Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Michigan Radio in making this change, which is recommended by the National Association of Black Journalists.

WUNC uses the Associated Press Style Guide for most usage questions.

We are deviating from AP Style in this case to recognize Black ethnicity and culture on an equal footing with that of other groups such as African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos. This is an overdue step to recognize the contributions and importance of Black Americans.

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Brent Wolfe

Brent Wolfe grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and majored in American Studies at Tufts University outside Boston. In college, Brent was inspired by the narrative journalism style of J. Anthony Lukas' "Common Ground," the story of school desegregation and court ordered busing in Boston. After college, he donned a ranger hat with the National Park Service to tell visitors the story of Boston's African American community in the 19th century. Brent eventually made his way to public radio- learning the basics at WBUR in Boston and doing political reporting at KQED in San Francisco. He moved on to report for WILL in Champaign-Urbana and then Minnesota Public Radio in Rochester where he covered stories from medical research at the Mayo Clinic to a gopher catching festival. Brent joined WUNC's reporting staff in March 2000, became news editor in February 2003, and News Director in 2011. Brent served on the Board of Directors of the Public Media Journalists Association as Treasurer from 2019 to 2021.

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