Black and white

I was puzzled why Carrie Compton, in her article on Professor Jacob Dlamini (“Revising the Revisionists,” September issue) consistently wrote “white” in lowercase while consistently capitalizing “Black.” I would have thought rules of grammatical consistency and considerations of racial equality would have indicated treating the two terms the same and capitalizing either both or neither. Is there a grammatical rule at work here of which I was unaware?

Editor’s note: On matters of capitalization, PAW follows The Associated Press Stylebook, which uses the capitalized term “Black” because “the term reflects a shared identity and culture rather than a skin color alone.” The stylebook directs that “white” should be in lowercase.