![]() Du Bois wrote to The New York Times and Encyclopedia Britannica to argue that the word “negro” ought to have its first letter capitalized.Ī decade later, to counter racism in the white press, the Black press used quotation marks when reporting on the case of a young man named Robert Nixon, who was convicted of murder. In the 1920s, influential Black intellectual W.E.B. ![]() Quotation marks convey suspicionĪ push to capitalize has actually happened before. This makes it a useful tool for activists who seek to upend dominant narratives. ![]() Think of the difference between ending a sentence with an exclamation point and with an ellipsis, or the way emoticons made of repurposed punctuation can be used to denote sarcasm or add playfulness and emotion. It can extend, contradict and play with meaning. But punctuation can do more than clarify. to visually separate sentences and improve comprehension. Punctuation was developed in the 3rd century B.C. Much like the recent drive to capitalize “black,” activists have deployed punctuation to question the legitimacy of confessions, criticize justifications made for lynchings and highlight the undervaluing of Black expertise and knowledge. Seemingly unimportant elements of writing have long been adapted as tools of Black activism. ![]() ![]() As I discuss in my recent book, “ Jim Crow Networks: African American Periodical Cultures,” Black activism in the media can take a variety of forms – some more subtle than others. ![]()
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