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…