Respectable public self-presentation contested racist stereotypes of black women

Evidence

The Baptist women’s emphasis on respectable behavior contested the plethora of negative stereotypes by introducing alternate images of black women. The annual meetings of the Woman’s Convention were themselves the product and process of black women’s collective self-construction and self-representation. The high quality of their programs implicitly contradicted the lazy, immoral, and inept images portrayed in racist literature. Speeches and reports bestowed dignity upon the convention’s members—commending the sacrifice of “daily toilers,” the faithfulness of “everyday women,” as well as the impressive achievements of members such as banker Maggie Lena Walker of Richmond, Virginia, and lawyer Gertrude Rush of Des Moines, Iowa.*! By privileging respectability, and particularly the capacity and worthiness of poor, working-class black women for respect, the WC’s public discourse emphasized a critical message to its members, namely, that self-esteem and self-determination were independent of contexts of race and income. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 878

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows respectability politics operating as collective self-representation against racist imagery.
• XREF: connects to: Black missionary women’s public speaking directly contested white stereotypes of immorality and childishness — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 483; Black intellectuals reworked feminized racial stereotypes into a defiant positive self-image — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 669; Showcasing accomplished black speakers countered racist deficit narratives and raised aspirations — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 776 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• The politics of respectability required blacks to police their own behavior against racist stereotype #expands (0.88) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 900
• Meeting spaces let black Baptist women define themselves against racist depiction #exemplifies (0.86) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 854
• Respectability discourse blames victimized blacks, especially women, for their own discrimination #complicates (0.84) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 923
• Elite Black women’s self-help efforts reproduced racist views of poor Black women #complicates (0.82) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 727