Respectability Politics Is A Fallacy Created To Continue To Oppress Black People
Racism is not Black people's fault
Respectability politics are a set of beliefs holding that conformity to prescribed mainstream standards of appearance and behaviour will protect a person who is a part of a marginalised group, especially a Black person, from prejudices and systemic injustices.
What a lie.
When I was younger, — as a coping mechanism to dealing with the racism I experienced — I used to think that if I refrained from using slang, saying chicken was not my favourite food and relaxing my hair would stop me from experiencing racism. In my tampered mind, I truly believed that there must have been a proven and justified reason for this mistreatment Black people always received. I went on to notice that stereotypes of us being “loud”, “ratchet” and “ghetto” was a point of reason for this gush of discrimination.
Which led me to believe that it was our fault that we experience discrimination. Furthermore, leading me to believe that if we abstained from these behaviours racism would stop. I was naive and blinded to the fact that this was respectability politics.
Dress how you want to be addressed they yell. A white woman can wear her hair in a lazy, but “aesthetic” messy bun with pronounced flyaways, she can wear sweatpants, cosy slippers and an oversized sweatshirt and her outfit is described as a “ lazy Sunday outfit”. This white woman can go out to the store, a lecture, the airport and drop her kids off at school without it being an issue. But, if a Black woman were to dress in this exact way she gets barraged with comments of how “unkempt” and “unprofessional” she looks.
As a Black woman, I can’t wear a bun and have my edges unlaid society dictates. I can’t travel with a bonnet on my head and society says. I can’t go out in sweats and a sweatshirt, or else I would appear undone and unpresentable. The bar is unfairly raised higher for Black people and we have to aspire to reach this beam that’s built on racism so that we can be “treated better” because now racism is our fault.
Imagine being so willfully ignorant to think that we experience racism because of our behaviour. “ Black people are too loud”, “ we eat too much-fried chicken”, “ we are lazy” and for these reasons, we deserve to be treated in a manner that is fuelled by racism and prejudice. The ideology of respectability politics suggests that we deserve to be treated this way because of our “ barbaric” tendencies and because “ we are less than”.
Respectability politics dangerously perpetuates the idea that if we were to conform to Western standards racism would not exist and that we are upholding systemic racism because of the tropes, stigmas and stereotypes that we feed into.
Racism is a construct because race is a construct. We are not responsible for the way we are treated. Therefore, why should we “respect” ourselves to fix an issue that wasn’t ours to start with? Respectability politics should not be a reaction to racism as it is an illogical solution to an illogical problem, — racism.
Respectability politics does not care about race, class or wealth. I could be “ well-spoken”, “ have my hair straight”, “ be calm and collected 24/7” and I will still experience racism because at the end of the day I am still a Black person. No matter, what level of code-switching, beauty conformant and straying away from stereotypes, we are undoubtedly Black and no level of respectability politics will change the situation.
We cannot continue to believe that appeasing structures that are built on the premise of “humanising’’ ourselves for whiteness is playing into the game of the system that dehumanised us in the first place.
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