Are you having doubts about whether the word Caucasian should or should not be capitalized? It can happen often that we’re writing a word and suddenly wonder if it should be capitalized, we will give you the rules for capitalization to make you a master at it.
Is Caucasian Capitalized?
The word Caucasian was originally used to depict the people that came from the Caucasus, a region in Russia in which most people are predominantly white. Then it was used to depict anyone who had European origins until it transformed into the definition we have nowadays, where Caucasian depicts mainly white people.
The rules of the English language say that we should always capitalize nouns and adjectives referring to language, race, nationality, and tribe. For example:
- Caucasian
- Spanish
- American
- Amerindian
- Francophone
- Inuk
- Argentinian
- Canadian
- Japanese
Like we said before, the word Caucasian refers to a specific group of people, whether it’s white people or European descendants, Caucasian is used to describe a race so it must be capitalized.
Every time a noun or adjective refers to a country, to a specific tribe or race or it’s talking about someone’s language it should be capitalized. Keep this in mind next time you wonder whether a word should be capitalized or not.
Here are some examples of phrases that contain the word Caucasian:
“My uncle’s best friend is called Edward, and he comes from a Caucasian country”
“Latin America is very diverse since it’s composed by Indigenous people, African descendants, Caucasians and the combination of those three groups, which are called Mestizos.”
“I grew up having a Caucasian mother and an African American father, so I learned to recognize better how and why the African American community was sometimes stigmatized.”
“According to the evidence of mummies, the Egyptians were slender build, with dark hair and of Caucasian type.”
Is White Capitalized?
The word “white” is currently lowercase according to all major style guides when referring to both the color and the ethnic group Caucasian. There is a lot of debate about whether the word “white” should be capitalized, especially in light of Black Lives Matters movements.
As a global news organization, we are continuing to discuss within the U.S. and internationally whether to capitalize the term white. Considerations are many and include any implications that doing so might have outside the United States. We will have a decision within a month.
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) June 19, 2020
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