Respectability Politics: 4 Problems With Respectability Politics

Respectability politics is a school of thought that uses respectability narratives—or examples of marginalized individuals who follow the code of conduct of the majority—to enact social change. Respectability politics aims to minimize the perceived differences between majority and marginalized individuals as well as erase perceived “bad behavior” of marginalized individuals. While respectability politics can enact meaningful change, the approach ultimately harms underprivileged individuals by enforcing the dominant culture, erasing cultural uniqueness, and ignoring struggles.

Many political figures have used respectability politics throughout US history to enact change for a number of different demographics, including for:

• Black Americans: The civil rights movement in the United States of America has consistently wrestled with Black respectability politics (as far back as W.E.B. Du Bois’s work The Soul of Black Folks) as a way to address systemic racism and encourage support of Black people in the United States. When Barack Obama ran to become the first Black man to be president of the United States, many Democratic politicians employed respectability politics to minimize his perceived difference from the culture of white people and encourage white voters to elect him. After President Obama was elected, politicians used him as an example of “Black power” or the “Black elite,” suggesting that he should be a role model for the Black community—especially for Black youth and Black students—to model “good manners,” or characteristically white behaviors.
• Dreamers: Many activists working for the rights of young undocumented immigrants—or Dreamers—employ respectability politics by spreading images of Dreamers in graduation caps and gowns. This downplays the perceived “bad behavior” or negative stereotypes of Dreamers and emphasizes the “elite” individuals to suggest they are similar to majority individuals and therefore deserve rights.
• The LGBTQ+ community: During the determination for same-sex marriage in the United States Supreme Court, many LGBT activists downplayed the unique features of the community in favor of arguing that all LGBTQ+ couples believed in the same family values of mainstream straight families.

The phrase “politics of respectability” first appeared in 1993 in the work of African American studies researcher Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. Her book, titled Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880–1920, identified respectability politics as a way for marginalized groups to attempt to gain favor and equal rights in mainstream society.

Respectability politics poses several problems in activism:

1. 1. Enforces the dominant culture: At its worst, respectability politics works—whether consciously or unconsciously—to enforce the rules and expectations of the dominant group, encouraging (or requiring) marginalized groups to abide by the majority group’s status quo before they can become acceptable or accepted.
2. 2. Erases cultural differences: Respectability politics ignores differences in cultural expectations or background by suggesting that all cultures hold the same ideals. In doing so, respectability politics tends to erase the unique characteristics and experiences of some groups and relies on the fallacy that only people similar to you deserve rights and respect.
3. 3. Ignores struggles: By focusing on a small group of “elite” individuals within a marginalized group, respectability politics ignores the struggles and hardships that other members of the group experience, especially lower and middle-class members. This can result in a lack of support or policies to help uplift the other group members’ well-being and mental health, and it reinforces the fallacy that because a handful of individuals were able to “rise above” their circumstances, all members could do so.
4. 4. Overlooks intersectionality: Many arguments that rely on respectability politics overlook the unique intersectional nature of marginalized groups in favor of a simple, streamlined respectability narrative. For instance, many arguments in women’s history that used respectability politics emphasized the strength of white women in white America; this tactic ignores other marginalized women, like the cross-section of Black feminism that addresses both sexism and racial inequality against people of color.

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