7 Reasons Why Respectability Politics are BS.

So many of us believed the lie that respectability politics presents us.

As an African American, it was implied to me that because I “spoke so well” and “behaved myself”, I wouldn’t have it as bad as those of my people who “didn’t”. And despite all of that, I face constant microaggressions daily and even had the word “nigger” graffitied on my college bulletin board. As a woman, I was told to not wear certain things because those things would imply some form of consent, only to find that anything I wear has that same implication and that most men simply don’t possess the self-control to restrain themselves.

Respectability politics is a term coined by author and professor Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham in her 1993 book Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880–1920. While the term is relatively new, the concept is as old as the racist rhetoric it comes from. It basically is an oppressive group telling an oppressed group that in order to receive better treatment from the group in power, they must behave better.

I am here to tell you, from research, and from experience, respectability politics are BS. There exists no amount of achievement or accolades that can prevent the hatred and bigotry certain groups feel toward Black and Brown people, women, members of the LGBTQI+ community. Ask Oprah, yes, queen Oprah who when she walked into an Hermés store was turned away from purchasing a bag because the staff there assumed she “could not afford it.” Or Serena Williams, arguably one of the greatest athletes of our time, who gets drug tested more than any other tennis player, male or female.

Respectability Politics is total BS because:

Respectability Politics simply do not work. If respectability politics could have saved Trayvon or Antwan, every single Black person would inundate ourselves in it. Every single person of color in the country has or will have a racist experience in this country. Every. Single. Damn. One. It doesn’t matter if you have a degree from every ivy league or big 10 schools, which is respectable at the very least. To be brown in this country is to be disrespected by those who are not, no matter who you are or what you have done.