respectability politics

[ri-spek-tuh-bil-i-tee pol-i-tiks]

noun

(used with a singular or plural verb)

1. a set of beliefs holding that conformity to prescribed mainstream standards of appearance and behavior will protect a person who is part of a marginalized group, especially a Black person, from prejudices and systemic injustices: Respectability politics place blame on groups already hindered by discrimination.

   Black respectability politics embraces the illusion of a level economic playing field.

   Respectability politics place blame on groups already hindered by discrimination.

Word History and Origins

Origin of respectability politics¹

First recorded in 1995–2000

Example Sentences

As King and his movement grew, Eig shows him in a complicated dance with white leaders like President Lyndon B. Johnson, who sometimes supported and sometimes hampered him, and with more radical Black activists who increasingly saw him as dedicated to an outmoded form of “respectability politics.”

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Amid the spine-tingling vocals and dancing that had sweat flying from Usher’s forehead and arms, one of the most remarkable parts of the “My Way” residency was how it bucked the respectability politics of pleasure that Black women face.

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And the mother, who is from a different generation, she’s in her 80s, says, I wish the boy would have just — it’s basically respectability politics.

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Some believe the erasure of Black LGBTQ+ leaders stems from respectability politics, a strategy in some marginalized communities of ostracizing or punishing members who don’t assimilate into the dominant culture.

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Barney grew up in a prosperous Black neighborhood in Philadelphia, and from an early age was steeped in the respectability politics of the era.

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