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Libertroph Magazine Editorial Guidelines

Libertroph Magazine uses AP Style. Common cases, as well as exceptions and adaptations specific to Libertroph, are outlined below. More details can be found here in the AP Stylebook.

Tone and Voice

Libertroph’s voice is curious and inviting. Our tone is warm and empathic, with a directness that reflects the seriousness of our vision of a world without racism.

• We honor the analyses that shape our efforts and embrace curiosity about how to end racism, while seeking to avoid “best ways” (e.g., “Anti-racist organizing is a life-giving practice that anyone can embrace in an effort to end racism,” vs. “Anti-racist organizing is how to end racism”).
• We strive to notice and eliminate linguistic racism and violence from our language (e.g., avoiding the use of “black” as synonymous with “bad” or “outcast,” as in “black sheep”).
• We embrace the unknown in our language and seek to avoid presumptive, declarative statements that cannot be fact-checked (e.g., “My great-grandparent didn’t know any people of color”). The exception is when the statement can be fact-checked through an article, journal entry or story told by the subject.
• We recognize that many things are true at the same time and invite depth and nuance that reflects the multiplicity of life. We seek to avoid binary/ dichotomous language of good and bad, right and wrong. When an author feels strongly about the use of such language in their piece, we will consider making an exception.
• We prioritize language that is accessible to any audience, regardless of their relationship to politics, history and race. At the same time, we trust our readers to draw connections and engage with Libertroph as a spark for deeper learning.
• We value language justice to increase access to our content for many different audiences. At this time, our practices include the use of alternative text, image descriptions and audio recordings.
• Libertroph is human-made at all stages. We reject AI as a tool of human and environmental degradation.

Capitalization

Libertroph’s capitalization standards reflect the AP Stylebook’s Titles guidelines, with the following exceptions and logic:

• We capitalize Black when referring to Black people to honor the historical and ongoing struggle to defy oppression and anti-Black racism that is collectively experienced by people of African descent, and to recognize Black as a (made-to-be-)marginalized race alongside Asian, Latiné, Indigenous and other groups of color. We choose to keep white lowercase as a symbol of delegitimization.
• We also believe in a future—within our lifetimes—where safety, health and wealth are shared by the full human population and the construct of race no longer defines our quality of life (i.e., the likelihood of someone dying during childbirth or a police encounter will not be predictable by their race).
• When an author chooses to make a proper noun lowercase to make a statement on the institution, place or system’s legitimacy (or lack thereof), we honor their choice.

We recognize that our language and how we approach capitalization will transform alongside our culture.

Formatting

Libertroph’s formatting reflects all of the punctuation guidelines in the AP Stylebook.

• Our writing follows AP Style, which omits the comma before a conjunction in a simple series (e.g., "We share food, resources and ideas with our neighbors").
• A comma should be used before the terminal conjunction in a complex series, if part of that series also contains a conjunction (e.g., ”We share food, resources like money and time, and ideas about community care and safe futures with our neighbors”).
• Commas, periods and question marks should be inside the quotation marks.

Sentence Structure

• A variety of short, punchy sentences and longer, descriptive ones are used to keep the pace engaging.
• We strive to use an active voice (e.g., "The organizer gathered 20 people” instead of "Twenty people were gathered by the organizer").
• We welcome starting sentences or clauses with conjunctions like "And" or "But" to create conversational flow.
• We welcome conversational contractions like don't, it's and we'll.

Citations

• To the extent possible, we weave citations directly into the piece rather than utilizing footnotes or parentheses.
• We link content to its source as needed in the digital edition. </aside>

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On Language / Definitions

There are many ways to talk about liberation.

This project references language and terms that we’ve learned from organizations and leaders who have inspired us. We know that language has been used to entrench racism; we strive to use language intentionally as a tool to undo racism.

Anti-racist organizing:

The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB) describes organizing as ‘bringing people together for a specific purpose or intent.’ Anti-racist organizing is about organizing with humanity and practicing the anti-racist organizing principles.

White culture:

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines culture as “a set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared.” When we consider white culture, we might think about wealth accumulation, individualism and reliance on the police. Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun help us see how the characteristics of this culture manifest interpersonally and organizationally through the White Supremacy Culture website.

White culture is distinct from the cultural heritages white people brought from Europe; often, white culture is the set of conditions and privileges for which white people gave up our ethnic cultural traditions.

White anti-racist culture:

Through the Somatic Abolitionism process, its founder Dr. Resmaa Menakem urges us to consider what embodied anti-racist culture might look and feel like in the US, particularly as white people. We understand white anti-racist culture as a vision not yet formulated, but actively being shaped by white people who have decided to consciously confront our relationships to white culture and shape new cultures that actively disrupt the violence and terror of white supremacy. Libertroph exists to highlight these efforts and make it more possible for white people to co-create white anti-racist culture that supports the safety and power of Black people, Indigenous people, Palestinian people, trans people, disabled people, and all people.

Internalized Racial Superiority:

Throughout Libertroph, several contributors name Internalized Racial Superiority (or IRS for short) to refer to behaviors and patterns exhibited by white people. PISAB notes IRS as one of two forms of Internalized Racial Oppression, the other being Internalized Racial Inferiority, which is experienced by people of color. They define IRS as: “The acceptance of and acting out of a superior definition is rooted in the historical designation of one’s race. Over many generations, this process of empowerment and access expresses itself as unearned privileges, access to institutional power, and invisible advantages based upon race.” Many of the characteristics of IRS, which are detailed in the Undoing Racism® workshop, mirror the characteristics of White Supremacy Culture referenced above.

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