diff --git a/Include/bytes_methods.h b/Include/bytes_methods.h
index 0938446e1f2..d0a6242d7a6 100644
--- a/Include/bytes_methods.h
+++ b/Include/bytes_methods.h
@@ -38,41 +38,6 @@ extern const char _Py_capitalize__doc__[];
 extern const char _Py_swapcase__doc__[];
 extern const char _Py_maketrans__doc__[];
 
-/* These are left in for backward compatibility and will be removed
-   in 2.8/3.2 */
-#define ISLOWER(c)  Py_ISLOWER(c)
-#define ISUPPER(c)  Py_ISUPPER(c)
-#define ISALPHA(c)  Py_ISALPHA(c)
-#define ISDIGIT(c)  Py_ISDIGIT(c)
-#define ISXDIGIT(c) Py_ISXDIGIT(c)
-#define ISALNUM(c)  Py_ISALNUM(c)
-#define ISSPACE(c)  Py_ISSPACE(c)
-
-#undef islower
-#define islower(c) undefined_islower(c)
-#undef isupper
-#define isupper(c) undefined_isupper(c)
-#undef isalpha
-#define isalpha(c) undefined_isalpha(c)
-#undef isdigit
-#define isdigit(c) undefined_isdigit(c)
-#undef isxdigit
-#define isxdigit(c) undefined_isxdigit(c)
-#undef isalnum
-#define isalnum(c) undefined_isalnum(c)
-#undef isspace
-#define isspace(c) undefined_isspace(c)
-
-/* These are left in for backward compatibility and will be removed
-   in 2.8/3.2 */
-#define TOLOWER(c) Py_TOLOWER(c)
-#define TOUPPER(c) Py_TOUPPER(c)
-
-#undef tolower
-#define tolower(c) undefined_tolower(c)
-#undef toupper
-#define toupper(c) undefined_toupper(c)
-
 /* this is needed because some docs are shared from the .o, not static */
 #define PyDoc_STRVAR_shared(name,str) const char name[] = PyDoc_STR(str)
 
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index de5d57303e5..19106512199 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -252,6 +252,10 @@ Extensions
 C-API
 -----
 
+- Issue #10288: The deprecated family of "char"-handling macros
+  (ISLOWER()/ISUPPER()/etc) have now been removed: use Py_ISLOWER() etc
+  instead.
+
 - Issue #9778: Hash values are now always the size of pointers. A new Py_hash_t
   type has been introduced.
 
diff --git a/Objects/bytesobject.c b/Objects/bytesobject.c
index 2b965c37aed..382e9110081 100644
--- a/Objects/bytesobject.c
+++ b/Objects/bytesobject.c
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ PyBytes_FromFormatV(const char *format, va_list vargs)
     for (f = format; *f; f++) {
         if (*f == '%') {
             const char* p = f;
-            while (*++f && *f != '%' && !ISALPHA(*f))
+            while (*++f && *f != '%' && !Py_ISALPHA(*f))
                 ;
 
             /* skip the 'l' or 'z' in {%ld, %zd, %lu, %zu} since
@@ -247,15 +247,15 @@ PyBytes_FromFormatV(const char *format, va_list vargs)
             /* parse the width.precision part (we're only
                interested in the precision value, if any) */
             n = 0;
-            while (ISDIGIT(*f))
+            while (Py_ISDIGIT(*f))
                 n = (n*10) + *f++ - '0';
             if (*f == '.') {
                 f++;
                 n = 0;
-                while (ISDIGIT(*f))
+                while (Py_ISDIGIT(*f))
                     n = (n*10) + *f++ - '0';
             }
-            while (*f && *f != '%' && !ISALPHA(*f))
+            while (*f && *f != '%' && !Py_ISALPHA(*f))
                 f++;
             /* handle the long flag, but only for %ld and %lu.
                others can be added when necessary. */
@@ -446,22 +446,22 @@ PyObject *PyBytes_DecodeEscape(const char *s,
             *p++ = c;
             break;
         case 'x':
-            if (s+1 < end && ISXDIGIT(s[0]) && ISXDIGIT(s[1])) {
+            if (s+1 < end && Py_ISXDIGIT(s[0]) && Py_ISXDIGIT(s[1])) {
                 unsigned int x = 0;
                 c = Py_CHARMASK(*s);
                 s++;
-                if (ISDIGIT(c))
+                if (Py_ISDIGIT(c))
                     x = c - '0';
-                else if (ISLOWER(c))
+                else if (Py_ISLOWER(c))
                     x = 10 + c - 'a';
                 else
                     x = 10 + c - 'A';
                 x = x << 4;
                 c = Py_CHARMASK(*s);
                 s++;
-                if (ISDIGIT(c))
+                if (Py_ISDIGIT(c))
                     x += c - '0';
-                else if (ISLOWER(c))
+                else if (Py_ISLOWER(c))
                     x += 10 + c - 'a';
                 else
                     x += 10 + c - 'A';
@@ -1406,7 +1406,7 @@ do_strip(PyBytesObject *self, int striptype)
 
     i = 0;
     if (striptype != RIGHTSTRIP) {
-        while (i < len && ISSPACE(s[i])) {
+        while (i < len && Py_ISSPACE(s[i])) {
             i++;
         }
     }
@@ -1415,7 +1415,7 @@ do_strip(PyBytesObject *self, int striptype)
     if (striptype != LEFTSTRIP) {
         do {
             j--;
-        } while (j >= i && ISSPACE(s[j]));
+        } while (j >= i && Py_ISSPACE(s[j]));
         j++;
     }
 
@@ -2347,11 +2347,11 @@ hex_digit_to_int(Py_UNICODE c)
 {
     if (c >= 128)
         return -1;
-    if (ISDIGIT(c))
+    if (Py_ISDIGIT(c))
         return c - '0';
     else {
-        if (ISUPPER(c))
-            c = TOLOWER(c);
+        if (Py_ISUPPER(c))
+            c = Py_TOLOWER(c);
         if (c >= 'a' && c <= 'f')
             return c - 'a' + 10;
     }
diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index b67b8f9fb14..35d86009f12 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -757,9 +757,9 @@ PyUnicode_FromFormatV(const char *format, va_list vargs)
                  continue;
              if (*(f+1)=='S' || *(f+1)=='R' || *(f+1)=='A')
                  ++callcount;
-             while (ISDIGIT((unsigned)*f))
+             while (Py_ISDIGIT((unsigned)*f))
                  width = (width*10) + *f++ - '0';
-             while (*++f && *f != '%' && !ISALPHA((unsigned)*f))
+             while (*++f && *f != '%' && !Py_ISALPHA((unsigned)*f))
                  ;
              if (*f == 's')
                  ++callcount;
@@ -790,9 +790,9 @@ PyUnicode_FromFormatV(const char *format, va_list vargs)
 #endif
             const char* p = f;
             width = 0;
-            while (ISDIGIT((unsigned)*f))
+            while (Py_ISDIGIT((unsigned)*f))
                 width = (width*10) + *f++ - '0';
-            while (*++f && *f != '%' && !ISALPHA((unsigned)*f))
+            while (*++f && *f != '%' && !Py_ISALPHA((unsigned)*f))
                 ;
 
             /* skip the 'l' or 'z' in {%ld, %zd, %lu, %zu} since
@@ -965,12 +965,12 @@ PyUnicode_FromFormatV(const char *format, va_list vargs)
             zeropad = (*f == '0');
             /* parse the width.precision part */
             width = 0;
-            while (ISDIGIT((unsigned)*f))
+            while (Py_ISDIGIT((unsigned)*f))
                 width = (width*10) + *f++ - '0';
             precision = 0;
             if (*f == '.') {
                 f++;
-                while (ISDIGIT((unsigned)*f))
+                while (Py_ISDIGIT((unsigned)*f))
                     precision = (precision*10) + *f++ - '0';
             }
             /* Handle %ld, %lu, %lld and %llu. */
@@ -1419,8 +1419,8 @@ normalize_encoding(const char *encoding,
     while (*e) {
         if (l == l_end)
             return 0;
-        if (ISUPPER(*e)) {
-            *l++ = TOLOWER(*e++);
+        if (Py_ISUPPER(*e)) {
+            *l++ = Py_TOLOWER(*e++);
         }
         else if (*e == '_') {
             *l++ = '-';
@@ -3790,7 +3790,7 @@ PyObject *PyUnicode_DecodeUnicodeEscape(const char *s,
             }
             for (i = 0; i < digits; ++i) {
                 c = (unsigned char) s[i];
-                if (!ISXDIGIT(c)) {
+                if (!Py_ISXDIGIT(c)) {
                     endinpos = (s+i+1)-starts;
                     if (unicode_decode_call_errorhandler(
                             errors, &errorHandler,
@@ -4156,7 +4156,7 @@ PyObject *PyUnicode_DecodeRawUnicodeEscape(const char *s,
         outpos = p-PyUnicode_AS_UNICODE(v);
         for (x = 0, i = 0; i < count; ++i, ++s) {
             c = (unsigned char)*s;
-            if (!ISXDIGIT(c)) {
+            if (!Py_ISXDIGIT(c)) {
                 endinpos = s-starts;
                 if (unicode_decode_call_errorhandler(
                         errors, &errorHandler,