Respectability reformers shifted from redeeming sinners to forming character early

Evidence

Emphasizing the “formation” of character, rather than its “reformation,” the women argued that churches must provide recreation and job placement services as a deterrent to idleness and crime. Under the section “How to Employ Your Idle Churches and Your Idle Children,” Burroughs’s annual report for 1912 advocated the use of church buildings as recreational outlets for youth during the summer months. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 817

Categorization

• DEFINE: ‘Formation vs. reformation’ is the preventive logic underlying the politics of respectability — worth keeping verbatim.
• XREF: connects to: Respectability politics blamed black victims for their own oppression — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 923; Respectable behavior was deliberate political strategy, not unconscious Bourdieu-style concession. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 883; Respectability politics converted menial work into skilled identity rather than merely outward manners — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 964 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Respectability politics converted menial work into skilled identity rather than merely outward manners #expands (0.85) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 964
• Respectability politics can both empower and imprison a marginalized group #qualifies (0.72) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1128