Black History Month: Trump Uses Lowercase ‘B’ To ‘Honor’ Black Americans In Presidential Proclaimation

President Donald Trump’s continued assault on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives notably coincided with the start of Black History Month, which he commemorated in part by communicating in a way that cultural and language experts have suggested disrespects African Americans.

While Trump referenced Black History Month with a capital B several times in a presidential proclamation issued Friday night, he also mentioned “black Americans” in multiple other instances by using a lowercase B.

MORE: White House Demands Rep. Hakeem Jeffries ‘Apologize’ For Non-Threat To ‘Fight’ Trump ‘In The Streets’

“​​Every year, National Black History Month is an occasion to celebrate the contributions of so many black American patriots who have indelibly shaped our Nation’s history,” Trump’s proclamation began before citing “American heroes” and “patriots” that included Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

Notably, Trump’s proclamation capitalized the B the “Black” in Black History Month, presumably because it is part of an official title in which each word’s first letters are uppercase.

But in choosing – because it was quite obviously an intentional choice – to use a lowercase B to address “black Americans,” Trump employed language that also minimized racial identity and upheld tenets of white supremacy, experts have argued.

A growing number of style guides for publications have adapted the capital B style in recent years when using variations of the word “Black” that refer specifically to ethnicity and racial background.

“Black is an encompassing term that is readily used to refer to African Americans, people of Caribbean descent and people of African origin worldwide, Sarah Glover, the past president of the National Association of Black Journalists, wrote in an op-ed from 2020, a time that was replete with racial justice protests that helped spark larger cultural awareness about African Americans, in particular. “Capitalizing the ‘B’ in Black should become standard use to describe people, culture, art and communities. We already capitalize Asian, Hispanic, African American and Native American.”

BREAKING: Trump orders the B in Black to be lowercase in all public documents, literature, movie scripts
& text books.

And orders the w in white to be an uppercase W.

— Morgan J. Freeman (@mjfree) January 31, 2025

Not capitalizing the B dismisses cultural identity, Rachel E. Harding, a professor of ethnic studies at Colorado University.

“African American generally refers to Black people who have lived in the United States for at least two generations, and more specifically to those who are descendants of the Africans who were enslaved in North America,” Harding said in 2021. “Black is the more comprehensive term.”

Further, the Columbia Journalism Review concluded that to use a lowercase B to describe Black people “is to perpetuate the iniquity of an institution that uprooted people from the most ethnically diverse place on the planet, systematically obliterating any and all distinctions regarding ethnicity and culture.”

Citing historical precedence, public policy communications leader David Lanham has explained that capitalizing the B in Black is also “a simple way to demonstrate” respect for Black people:

The call to capitalize Black follows a longstanding struggle for Black respect and justice. Almost a century ago, NAACP co-founder W.E.B. Du Bois launched a letter-writing campaign to major media outlets demanding that their use of the word “negro” be capitalized, as he found “the use of a small letter for the name of twelve million Americans and two hundred million human beings a personal insult.” Ultimately, The New York Times updated its stylebook to capitalize “Negro,” noting that it was “an act in recognition of racial respect for those who have been generations in the ‘lower case.’” Over time, as “Negro” fell out of favor, the spirit of that change was lost as “black” became the predominant term used to represent this group of people.

The Diversity Style Guide, Associated Press, USA Today. the Atlantic, the Chicago Manual of Style and the New York Times all use capital B following executive decisions made in recent years. NewsOne has incorporated that style since its inception more than a decade ago.

Notably, the Associated Press also made it clear it would not extend the same privilege when referring to white people in part because “capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs.”

Despite the demonstrated momentum and increasing mainstream adaptation of the capital B when referring to Black people, Trump still chose to go the lowercase route.

Trump’s choice of language might not be as heavily scrutinized if he hadn’t come out of the inauguration gates swinging at anything remotely having to do with diversity; oh, and his decades of documented discrimination against Black people and the past decade of anti-Black rhetoric, in particular.

Up until the proclamation was issued, it wasn’t even clear if the White House would be observing Black History Month at all, what with the flurry of anti-DEI executive orders that used vague language.

Lest we forget that it was just a few short days ago when Trump baselessly blamed the fatal collision of a military helicopter with a commercial passenger plane on DEI even though none of the pilots involved were Black.

Film director Morgan J. Freeman satirically posted on X, formerly Twitter, shortly before the presidential proclamation was issued that “Trump orders the B in Black to be lowercase in all public documents, literature, movie scripts & text books. And orders the w in white to be an uppercase W.”

But Trump’s doings, even and especially down to his choice of language, is certainly no joke.

From affirmative action to birthright citizenship and beyond, Trump has been on a self-stated mission to dismantle any federal programs and initiatives designed to assist and protect racial minorities. Now he’s extending that same energy in a presidential proclamation about Black History Month disguised as a reverential tribute amid undeniably anti-Black actions.

This is America.

SEE ALSO:

Trump To Sign Anti-Critical Race Theory Executive Order, Seek Reinstatement Of His ‘1776 Commission’

Historical Grave Robbing: How Trump Declassifying MLK Files Masquerades As A Search For Truth