Rendering Whiteness Visible

The language we use to speak, think, and label people is consequential. Most style guides that previously called for lowercasing Black altered their positions. This letter to the editors urges the American Journal of International Law (AJIL) to join those organizations that have also changed their policies to capitalize White. The process of racialization does not only manifest through discrimination. It also occurs through a shared relative position of privilege as compared to another group(s). AJIL’s decision should be informed by the normative choice to further anti-subordination efforts and by the need to take corrective action to the Journal’s historic aversion to explicitly engage with race. AJIL must continue to reckon with its own complicity in rendering Whiteness invisible with a commitment to ensuring to do better prospectively.