diff --git a/common/lib/capa/capa/customrender.py b/common/lib/capa/capa/customrender.py
index 258bfa4dc6..255adfa29b 100644
--- a/common/lib/capa/capa/customrender.py
+++ b/common/lib/capa/capa/customrender.py
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ class ClarificationRenderer(object):
         self.system = system
         # Get any text content found inside this tag prior to the first child tag. It may be a string or None type.
         initial_text = xml.text if xml.text else ''
-        self.inner_html = initial_text + ''.join(etree.tostring(element) for element in xml)
+        self.inner_html = initial_text + u''.join(etree.tostring(element, encoding='unicode') for element in xml)
         self.tail = xml.tail
 
     def get_html(self):