Is respectability politics... still respectable?

[Undefeatable]

I am not contending that a given strategy must be correct merely because it is propounded by esteemed figures. Great leaders make mistakes, too. Nor is a given strategy sound for all time. Many things that would have been imprudent to say in Mississippi in 1950 were, thank goodness, no longer so in 1970. One must be aware, moreover, that from the vantage of those in charge, virtually any effective protest is disreputable. Beyond that, one must be sensitive to the conditional virtues of outrageousness. In some circumstances it is effective and praiseworthy to scandalize the arbiters of established opinion, to give the finger to the powers that be. No movement in American history practiced a more honorable politics than the abolitionists, even though they often luxuriated in incivility. I am not defending observance of conventional propriety as a timeless principle. I am simply saying that there are occasions when deploying respectability can be useful and ought to be done.

Opponents of respectability politics often talk as though it has never been an effective tool for black activists. “Black folks have already tested out . . . respectability,” Brittney Cooper, a professor at Rutgers, wrote recently. “We’ve been trying to save our lives by dressing right, talking right and never, ever fucking up since about 1877. That shit has not worked."

One wonders what Cooper has in mind. If she is complaining that blacks still confront racism, even after having ardently practiced respectability politics, then I fully concur. But if she is saying that the precautions undertaken and the cultivation of image pursued by countless blacks have not mattered, then I must object. By dint of intelligent, brave, persistent collective action, African Americans have helped tremendously to transform the United States in ways that offer grounds for encouragement and hope. Indeed, the tone of indignant futility struck by some opponents of black respectability politics is worrying. The politics of black respectability has not banished antiblack racism, but it has improved the racial situation dramatically and has kept alive some black people who might otherwise be dead.

...

An underlying optimism animates respectability politics, a belief that even in the teeth of recalcitrant bigotry and cruel indifference, blacks can still wrest from this society more liberty and equality. Keenly aware of how far blacks have come over the past half-century, proponents of respectability politics have faith that shrewd, disciplined, and forceful action can help blacks, individually and collectively, continue to advance. The detractors of respectability politics, on the other hand, tend to eschew talk of progress and to dwell on the huge disadvantages that continue to burden African Americans.

Randall Kennedy is the Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School. His review “Old Poison, New Battles” appeared in the August 2015 issue of Harper’s Magazine.
http://harpers.org/archive/2015/10/lifting-as-we-climb/?single=1

 

[The_Jackal]

It's respectful in the sense that as the professor states it will only get you do far. Think about it in a sense like American slavery (which was the first kind of system to be based around race) your oppressiers are going to automatically see you as unequal. Of course we are not in the 1800s anymore but plenty of whites particular southerns still hold that mentality. Now if a man/women hates you because they see you as inferior then no matter how you speak, dress act, it won't change their opinion. Only in America has slavery been so rooted in our culture and this nation that you can still feel it's effect.

 

[The_Jackal]

Now not to say that perhaps there aren't people that you can influence to see us in a positive life but in playing a role would you want to. If everyday a white man saw you in a suit nice haircut overall clean appearance and accepted you and another he ran into you while you were leaving the gym tanktop shorts sweating and thought you were intimidating or he was scared of you then did you really change his mind. Respectable can only get you so far when you have to hide your whole character and put on an act

 

[Rasta.]

It's respectful in the sense that as the professor states it will only get you do far. Think about it in a sense like American slavery (which was the first kind of system to be based around race) your oppressiers are going to automatically see you as unequal. Of course we are not in the 1800s anymore but plenty of whites particular southerns still hold that mentality. Now if a man/women hates you because they see you as inferior then no matter how you speak, dress act, it won't change their opinion. Only in America has slavery been so rooted in our culture and this nation that you can still feel it's effect.

You sure you've ever set foot outside the US?

 

[The_Jackal]

It's respectful in the sense that as the professor states it will only get you do far. Think about it in a sense like American slavery (which was the first kind of system to be based around race) your oppressiers are going to automatically see you as unequal. Of course we are not in the 1800s anymore but plenty of whites particular southerns still hold that mentality. Now if a man/women hates you because they see you as inferior then no matter how you speak, dress act, it won't change their opinion. Only in America has slavery been so rooted in our culture and this nation that you can still feel it's effect.

You sure you've ever set foot outside the US?

Name one other country or culture in the history of the world where slavery was based specific and only one race. This isn't ancient Rome or Greece where anyone could be a slave. Africans were actively brought, captured and sold because whites ultimately thought they were suprior to blacks in the American colonies. That's a fact

 

[Undefeatable]

It's respectful in the sense that as the professor states it will only get you do far. Think about it in a sense like American slavery (which was the first kind of system to be based around race) your oppressiers are going to automatically see you as unequal. Of course we are not in the 1800s anymore but plenty of whites particular southerns still hold that mentality. Now if a man/women hates you because they see you as inferior then no matter how you speak, dress act, it won't change their opinion. Only in America has slavery been so rooted in our culture and this nation that you can still feel it's effect.

You sure you've ever set foot outside the US?

Name one other country or culture in the history of the world where slavery was based specific and only one race. This isn't ancient Rome or Greece where anyone could be a slave. Africans were actively brought, captured and sold because whites ultimately thought they were suprior to blacks in the American colonies. That's a fact

Jamaica.

 

[The_Jackal]

It's respectful in the sense that as the professor states it will only get you do far. Think about it in a sense like American slavery (which was the first kind of system to be based around race) your oppressiers are going to automatically see you as unequal. Of course we are not in the 1800s anymore but plenty of whites particular southerns still hold that mentality. Now if a man/women hates you because they see you as inferior then no matter how you speak, dress act, it won't change their opinion. Only in America has slavery been so rooted in our culture and this nation that you can still feel it's effect.

You sure you've ever set foot outside the US?

Name one other country or culture in the history of the world where slavery was based specific and only one race. This isn't ancient Rome or Greece where anyone could be a slave. Africans were actively brought, captured and sold because whites ultimately thought they were suprior to blacks in the American colonies. That's a fact

Jamaica.

Jamaica and most Caribbean islands still fall understand the same idea of the American colonies. Even though they weren't formaily brought in they were still under control of the British. They even ended slavery before the us

 

[ThaNubianGod]

It's respectful in the sense that as the professor states it will only get you do far. Think about it in a sense like American slavery (which was the first kind of system to be based around race) your oppressiers are going to automatically see you as unequal. Of course we are not in the 1800s anymore but plenty of whites particular southerns still hold that mentality. Now if a man/women hates you because they see you as inferior then no matter how you speak, dress act, it won't change their opinion. Only in America has slavery been so rooted in our culture and this nation that you can still feel it's effect.

You sure you've ever set foot outside the US?

Name one other country or culture in the history of the world where slavery was based specific and only one race. This isn't ancient Rome or Greece where anyone could be a slave. Africans were actively brought, captured and sold because whites ultimately thought they were suprior to blacks in the American colonies. That's a fact

Arab slavery of Black Africans was the first based on race. Happened long before American slavery though

 

[The_Jackal]

It's respectful in the sense that as the professor states it will only get you do far. Think about it in a sense like American slavery (which was the first kind of system to be based around race) your oppressiers are going to automatically see you as unequal. Of course we are not in the 1800s anymore but plenty of whites particular southerns still hold that mentality. Now if a man/women hates you because they see you as inferior then no matter how you speak, dress act, it won't change their opinion. Only in America has slavery been so rooted in our culture and this nation that you can still feel it's effect.

You sure you've ever set foot outside the US?

Name one other country or culture in the history of the world where slavery was based specific and only one race. This isn't ancient Rome or Greece where anyone could be a slave. Africans were actively brought, captured and sold because whites ultimately thought they were suprior to blacks in the American colonies. That's a fact

Arab slavery of Black Africans was the first based on race. Happened long before American slavery though

That doesn't even make sense since the Arabs were active in western Asia, North Africa, and Europe particularly Italy in Sicily. Why else do you think that people say Italians are black. Because of the Arab and black moors

 

[Delphas]

Teaching your children to strive for more, practice and use good grammar and diction, and to be wary of situations that can turn sour if things go bad All children, regardless of background, should be taught these ideas.

Where it fails is teaching them that it makes a difference to racists. I was raised that way and taught the hard way.

 

[desertrain10]

I refuse to engage in respectability politics

I just don't feel it should be my job to convince anyone that I'm one of the "good" negroes

Than it's a lost cause

No matter if I put on on my best face, i'd still be black and i'd still be the exception to the rule

The rule being blks/ blk culture is inferior

 

[blackrain]

It's respectful in the sense that as the professor states it will only get you do far. Think about it in a sense like American slavery (which was the first kind of system to be based around race) your oppressiers are going to automatically see you as unequal. Of course we are not in the 1800s anymore but plenty of whites particular southerns still hold that mentality. Now if a man/women hates you because they see you as inferior then no matter how you speak, dress act, it won't change their opinion. Only in America has slavery been so rooted in our culture and this nation that you can still feel it's effect.

You sure you've ever set foot outside the US?

Name one other country or culture in the history of the world where slavery was based specific and only one race. This isn't ancient Rome or Greece where anyone could be a slave. Africans were actively brought, captured and sold because whites ultimately thought they were suprior to blacks in the American colonies. That's a fact

So you must not know that North America actually got less slaves than Latin America and the West Indies?

 

[The_Jackal]

It's respectful in the sense that as the professor states it will only get you do far. Think about it in a sense like American slavery (which was the first kind of system to be based around race) your oppressiers are going to automatically see you as unequal. Of course we are not in the 1800s anymore but plenty of whites particular southerns still hold that mentality. Now if a man/women hates you because they see you as inferior then no matter how you speak, dress act, it won't change their opinion. Only in America has slavery been so rooted in our culture and this nation that you can still feel it's effect.

You sure you've ever set foot outside the US?

Name one other country or culture in the history of the world where slavery was based specific and only one race. This isn't ancient Rome or Greece where anyone could be a slave. Africans were actively brought, captured and sold because whites ultimately thought they were suprior to blacks in the American colonies. That's a fact

So you must not know that North America actually got less slaves than Latin America and the West Indies?

But more were breed instate after importing was banned. Even white president thought that eventually another president woukd outlaw it amd just let it continue. And again it all falls under British territory should have been more specific

 

[MarcusGarvey]

Yes

Being a conscious black man is an exhausting experience. Sometimes, I wish I could turn that part of my brain off but fortunately or unfortunately i can't.

I'm disappointed with Negroes - murders (I don't care if it's going down, it's still too damn high), disparity in education, income, wealth and most of all values - as in love thy black self. AND I'm forever disappointed by the system that perpetuates these inequities - municipalities using the poor as a cash advance, cops murder unarmed and/or mentally unstable black men and women, restrict the right to vote, drug war, and the prison industrial complex.

I feel like sometimes I'm the only one that sees this

/rant over

 

[jono]

Nothing is really wrong with respectability politics because the higher income levels people achieve the more they engage in it.

A solidly middle class or better white kid is going to watch what he says and does as to not give off a negative perception about his upbringing or character. This doesn't mean they are not flawed but they don't wear them as badges of honor either.

Its the "public face vs private face" thing.

I think Jay- Z & 50 Cent are examples of people who wanted to "keep it real" and found that it doesn't work when you trying to get sponsorships and trying to reach up the ladder. The last thing those dudes needed was to be seen as a stereotypical "thug" and to some degree it worked for them but some people will forever see them as rappers and people who played that role but for the most part they changed perception about themselves to make themselves more respected in their circle.

Ain't nothing you can do to stop being black, even bleaching your skin can't change it but being Black doesn't have to mean you are a stereotype either. You can love cornbread and watermelon without coming across like a nigga, you can love smoking weed and the NBA without coming across like a nigga. ALL the shit Black folks enjoy other people do too, its just when people see ghetto names, obnoxious weaves, sagging, etc it gives off negative vibes.