Respectability crusades unwittingly reinforced the very stereotypes they fought.

Evidence

The WC’s enormous concern for whites’ perceptions of black behavior regularly prompted scathing critiques against nonconformity to “proper” values. In its denunciation of those blacks who rejected hard work, piety, cleanliness, sexual purity, and temperance, the WC unwittingly reinforced prevalent stereotypical images of blacks. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 894

Categorization

• XREF: This is the internal-policing cost of respectability — connects to chapter 4’s finding that the educated tenth disciplined the masses, and to broader debates about respectability politics backfiring. — connects to: Black middle-class advancement sharpened cultural divisions within black society — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 224; Stereotypes harden when actively defended, not merely lazily deployed; Hostile legends about rivals helped embattled minorities defend against doubt — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 157 (+1 more)
• SEED: Angle for an essay: the self-defeating internal policing inherent to any oppressed group’s respectability strategy — when defending against the outside gaze reinforces its categories.
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Stereotypes harden when actively defended, not merely lazily deployed #corroborates (0.82)
• Stereotypes are deeply bipolar, mirroring period ideologies. #expands (0.78) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 645
• Hostile legends about rivals helped embattled minorities defend against doubt #complicates (0.75) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 157