Respectability politics can both empower and imprison a marginalized group

Evidence

But there’s respectability that empowers and respectability that imprisons. And the imprisoning sort remains a bane for Black America. Its people were fully aware of the abysmal expectations minstrelsy had established: a roulette of contempt, shame, rage, self-consciousness, appeasement. The art form’s racism has proved poisonous to a race’s collective self-esteem. A nineteenth century full of white people’s artistic mockery buried land mines that lasted well into the twentieth century. Does every Black performer who seems to evoke minstrelsy warrant comparison to a minstrel? Is there any way for a Black performer to achieve national acclaim, in a country with a majority-white population, without incurring charges of selling out? — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1128

Categorization

• XREF: The empowering-vs-imprisoning distinction on respectability echoes debates in Black Studies around ‘politics of respectability’ (Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham), and connects to the civil-rights-respectability thread in ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’. — connects to: Social marginality from family is what allowed courtesans to achieve near-equality with men — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 191; Marginal groups gain a political will only through representation itself — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 313; Respectability reformers shifted from redeeming sinners to forming character early — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 817 (+9 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Crisp two-way distinction on respectability (empowers vs imprisons) with a pointed open question at the close — worth sitting with.