Editors' note: Star Tribune to capitalize Black as racial, cultural identifier

Beginning today, the Star Tribune will capitalize Black as a racial, cultural and ethnic identifier, joining a number of news organizations across the country. This is in line with our capitalization of other groups, such as Latino and Native American.

We will use racial identifiers only if they are pertinent to the story, and we will seek to ask sources how they want to be named — African American, Black, Somali American, etc. — and honor that. We will not capitalize white; Black describes a shared experience in a way that white does not.

The style change matches recent updates at the Associated Press, the New York Times and other news outlets and comes in response to requests from individuals and organizations in the community and the journalism industry. The Star Tribune's decision also follows a series of conversations among news staff and with individuals and groups outside the newsroom.