The emergence of the Black Power movement fostered the emergence of Black as a primary descriptive term, as in “Black pride.” By the mid-1970s Black had become common within and outside the Black community. That decade saw a burgeoning civil rights movement, which furthered a sense that Negro was contaminated by its long association with discrimination as well as its closeness to the disparaging and deeply offensive N-word. Negro remained the overwhelming term of choice until the mid-1960s. Failure to explicitly reference blackness when it is exclusively appropriate, generalizing “Black” to “of color,” can be a form of erasure. However, when referring to a group of people who are all Black, it is more appropriate to be specific. Using “of color” can emphasize commonalities in nonwhite lives. That term, an inclusive one that can refer to anyone who is not white, is frequently used by members of the Black community. Describing someone as a person of color, however, is not usually offensive. It survives primarily in the name of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an organization formed when the word was not considered derogatory. Now colored is perceived not only as old-fashioned but offensive. Colored, for example, first used in colonial North America, was an appropriate referential term until the 1920s, when it was supplanted by Negro.
A term that was once acceptable may now be offensive, and one that was once offensive may now be acceptable. In the United States, there is a complex social history for words that name or describe the dark-skinned peoples of sub-Saharan Africa and their descendants. Use the adjective instead: Black homeowners, Black voters, a Black business proprietor. The use of the plural noun without an article is somewhat more accepted (home ownership among Blacks ) however, the plural noun with an article is more likely to offend (political issues affecting the Blacks ), and the singular noun is especially likely to offend (The small business proprietor is a Black ). As a noun, however, it does often offend.
Black as an adjective referring to a person or people is unlikely to cause negative reactions. The case for capitalizing the initial letter ( Black ) is further supported by the fact that the names of many other ethnic groups and nationalities use initial capital letters, e.g., Hispanic. Black may be capitalized when used in reference to people, as a sign of respect.
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