Respectability politics

In her book Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880–1920, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham coined the term 'the politics of respectability' to describe social and political changes in the Black community during this time. She particularly focused on the revitalization of the Black Baptist Church and how it became a location of self-help for Black individuals. This was particularly true for Black women, who used the church as a location of resistance against racism and dehumanization. These women built schools and provided social welfare services to enhance their respectability and promote their communities.[12]

This type of mobilizing continued and infiltrated the methodology of teachers in Black communities in the Jim Crow South. Teachers encouraged their students to integrate themselves into white, middle class communities in the hopes of motivating and inspiring students to escape racial injustice. These teachers viewed their profession as a political act, helping young Black students disassociate from negative stereotypes.[13] Black communities were also expected to integrate themselves into being more white in order to gain access to political benefits.

In the book Black Power: The Politics of Liberation, Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, and Charles V. Hamilton, illustrate how the town of Tuskegee, Alabama is not recognized in politics by white politicians. The population of Tuskegee is 95% Black,[14] yet those numbers do not represent the people in politics. Ture and Hamilton go on to discuss how Black people constantly have to prove themselves to white people. It is a never-ending cycle because once one aspect of being white is achieved, another is placed in their way.[15]

The Black Lives Matter movement is an example of a movement against respectability politics. The movement was motivated by the shooting and death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager who was killed by a neighborhood watch member. The number of subsequent police killings of unarmed Black men that gained broad national attention motivated a conversation about racial stereotypes and why certain racial stereotypes came to imply Black men are "dangerous". The Black Lives Matter movement argues that people are deserving of rights regardless of "any ostensibly non-respectable behavior."[16] Instead of acknowledging and shying away from negative Black stereotypes, the Black Lives Matter movement works to expand the concept of what it means to be "respectable" and argue that negatively stereotyped behavior should not be met with deadly force.[16]

In line with the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, some celebrities who have typically shied away from conversations about race have begun to engage with the topic. For example, at the beginning of her career, popular television producer and creator Shonda Rhimes aired shows that had colorblind scripts, despite having diverse casts (e.g. Grey's Anatomy). This was consistent with modern respectability politics in what is sometimes argued to be a post-racial era. Today, Rhimes engages in conversations about racial inequality in the media and addresses racially charged topics on her show, pushing against respectability politics and affirming the rights of all people regardless of their 'respectability'.[17]

One way to challenge respectability politics is reclaiming negative stereotypes associated with minority communities, rather than disassociating from them. This can take place in the form of rebranding words that have been used as insults towards communities.

Rebranding of the derogatory term "ratchet" has been one way Black women specifically have pushed back against respectability politics. Black women who identify as ratchet reclaim the negative stereotypes associated with Black culture, such as hyper-sexuality, and instead embrace individualism. The strategy of reclaiming negative stereotypes has been acknowledged as having potential for Black feminine liberation, but has also been criticized for its limitations contained within the confines of the terms that are being reconceptualized. For example, ratchet is associated with heterosexuality, which confines potential to liberate in the context of being 'ratchet'.[18]

An example of respectability politics used by the LGBT community in the United States was the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling that legalized Same-sex marriage. Much of the mainstream argument to include the LGBT community in a heteronormative institution like marriage was that the inclusion of LGBT people in marriage would not challenge or change traditional marriage values, like monogamy. In order to benefit from marriage as an institution, the LGBT community argues their relationships were much akin and perpetuated the same values as heterosexual communities.[23]

One way in which women can abide by respectability politics is through their clothing. The ways in which women dress are highly indicative of their place and level of respectability within society and a community. Women who dress respectably are more likely to be admitted into social and political institutions. This precedent became most apparent in the Victorian era.[24]

According to scholars such as Simone de Beauvoir, getting married is an example of respectability politics for women. While being married gives participants access to a variety of benefits like health care and tax benefits, de Beauvoir argues this also comes with the necessity to abide by bourgeois respectability.[26] This type of respectability is specific to women, and requires that women "perform a service in the marriage". These services include satisfying men's sexual needs and caring for the household.[27] Today, respectability politics within marriages are challenged but not erased by greater levels of economic and social equality between men and women.[28]