Respectability politics offers no protection against police violence

Evidence

In her timely book From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, Princeton University professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor writes, “The killing of Mike Brown, along with an ever-growing list of other unarmed black people, drove holes in the logic that black people simply doing the “right things,’ whatever those things might be, could overcome the perennial crises within Black America. After all, Mike Brown was only walking down the street. Eric Garner was standing on the corner. Rekia Boyd was in a park with friends. Trayvon Martin was walking with a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea.” Black men, women, and youth were vulnerable when engaged in the most benign acts, which illustrated that any and every black person in America could be similarly targeted. Being an exemplary citizen offered no safeguard from the prospect of police violence. Respectability, and the politics that sang its praises, offered no protection. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 428

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the de-prioritization of respectability as a shield — parallels the argument that Muslim ‘model minority’ respectability fails as protection under surveillance. — connects to: Neither denunciation nor privatized acceptance can create a politics of mutual respect; Constitutional protections failed to prevent police violence that fueled Black Lives Matter. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 4326
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 428

Broader Connections

• Neither denunciation nor privatized acceptance can create a politics of mutual respect #expands (0.60)