Elon Musk caused the MAGA movement to erupt on Tuesday after he accused The New York Times of "deliberate" and "comprehensive" anti-white racism.
Musk retweeted a post by Douglass Mackey where Mackey noted that the term "white" is not capitalized, but the term "Black" is capitalized in a NYT story about a high-profile murder case. Mackey argued that the style choice showed that "you are second-class citizens," referring to white people.
"Why is 'white' always in lowercase, but Black is uppercase, @nytimes?" Musk wrote on X. "The NY Times is deliberate, precise and comprehensive in its anti-White racism."
The Associated Press explains that capitalizing the word Black in a cultural or ethnic context refers to the "strong historical and cultural commonalities" shared between people who are Black, such as being discriminated against because of the color of their skin.
"White people generally do not share the same history and culture, or the experience of being discriminated against because of skin color," the AP says.
MAGA commentators and internet personalities piled on after Musk posted.
"Did you know that the AP has an actual “explanation” for this? It’s everything you’d expect…" MAGA internet personality Alex Lorusso posted on X.
"This is why. Check the date," Eric Daugherty, news director for Florida Voice News, posted on X. "BLM and George Floyd is why. Utter and complete madness."
"AP literally says that’s the rule," political consultant Joey Mannarino posted on X. "It’s so racist."
"For the same reason that @nytimes won’t report that 5% of the population commits over 50% of the murders," citizen journalist Nick Sortor posted on X.
"Grok does this too fyi," MAGA influencer Liz Wheeler posted on X.