How Young People Are Inspiring Dictionaries to Redefine “Black”

This past month, hundreds of young people took to social to amplify their own definitions of “Black”/”black.”

Dictionary.com took the lead and has already announced that it would create a more racially inclusive definition of the word "Black”/”black.” A lot of dictionaries have their definitions referring to Black people followed closely by ones that refer to being stained, soiled, dirty, or hostile. Inspired by the #RedefineBlack movement, Dictionary.com made adjustments to its definitions and issued the following statement:

“While there are no semantic links between these two senses [Black people and “soiled or stained with dirt”], their proximity on the page can be harmful. It can lead to unconscious associations between this word of identity and a negative term. These are not associations we want anyone to get from Dictionary.com, and so we will be swapping our second and third senses on the page.”

Dictionary.com has also announced it will capitalize “Black” when referencing people.

DoSomething.org's #RedefineBlack campaign, in partnership with My Black Is Beautiful, is continuing to activate young people to advocate for a positive, racially-unbiased definition of “Black” and ”black” in all dictionaries by imploring other dictionaries to take Dictionary.com's lead and update their definition of "Black”/”black" as well.

“To me this campaign is important because black means being the strongest of the strong [and] knowing your worth,” says Caira, a DoSomething member who tweeted to #RedefineBlack. “[It’s about] knowing the beauty of our skin and showing the young ones that they should love what is out and in.”

The campaign called for the removal of negative definitions or associations within dictionary definitions of “Black”/”black,” like the “unconscious associations” Dictionary.com is trying to avoid. Unconscious associations are unintentional beliefs or attitudes that people may not even realize they have. The danger is in the way these underlying connections and feelings can fuel real-world prejudice, even unintentionally.

Take, for example, the “Bad is Black” effect. Research suggests that people tend to perceive a person with darker skin as more likely to act immorally. Multiple studies showed that participants who saw a link between darkness and badness unconsciously translated that into an association between dark skin and evilness.

“This campaign is important to me as a Black woman living in America, history has always used ‘black’ as a weapon to systematically oppress an entire demographic of people,” says Taylor, a 17-year-old DoSomething member. “It's important to me that when anyone hears or sees ‘black’ they immediately think of something positive of something that makes them smile instead of subconsciously succumbing to their implicit biases.”

With Dictionary.com pledging to revise its definition of “Black”/”black,” young people will now pressure other dictionaries to do the same, calling out notable dictionaries like Merriam-Webster, Oxford, and Collins, which still include things like “hostility or angry discontent,” “despair or pessimism,” and “very bad indeed” in their definitions. To learn more about how language affects perception and join the movement for racially inclusive definitions, check out the #RedefineBlack campaign in partnership with My Black is Beautiful.