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Ive noticed for the longest time and blocked even others on my side for constantly dismissing efforts to bring about change because those efforts arent respectable or pristine enough to garner respect of the wider society. There are a lot of things that are wrong with that approach and i think my generation is getting it.
1. Respectability politics places the burden on the marginalized and mistreated in society in an incredibly undue way to gain the same recognition of their humanity that the majority in power already have and never had to earn in such a way. In the beginning of this country white landowning males never had to earn their right to vote nor recognition of their humanity. Why is this expectation always put on a black man who is murdered by a police officer? Why is his past always dug up in order to prove he was no angel? The man was still murdered by another given extraordinary power over him.
2. The people within human rights groups who use this are saying their support for solving a pressing problem is conditional upon the behavior of the marginalized and mistreated among society
3. This leads to over policing and the shutting down of people who are having a very rough time in their lives. We are emotional creatures get over it, nobody is going to be your perfect model.
4. It leads to the model minority dilemma. While a model minority can help to humanize a dehumanized group, relying on this too much tends to lead to marginalized people having to reinforce the thinking of the majority. It relies on tokenizing and being used to further the narratives that hurt everyone in the group the token is a part of. We see this in Blair White and Candace Owens and the log cabin republicans in texas. They are the shield in which racists and other bigots can hide behind to avoid criticism. This is still abusive on a fundamental level, often the model minority gains confidence and acceptance by saying “i’m not like them” thereby escaping abuse by assimilating into the already abusive culture. This construct relies heavily on survivorship bias which tends to reinforce the society which mistreats certain people by requiring others to bootstrap. Dr. King had a thing to say about the ridiculous notion of bootstrapping.
I’ve got news for ya. This doesnt work, as soon as you mess up on this perfect image they will hate you just as much as they already have.
So should we toss respectability politics?
1. Respectability politics places the burden on the marginalized and mistreated in society in an incredibly undue way to gain the same recognition of their humanity that the majority in power already have and never had to earn in such a way. In the beginning of this country white landowning males never had to earn their right to vote nor recognition of their humanity. Why is this expectation always put on a black man who is murdered by a police officer? Why is his past always dug up in order to prove he was no angel? The man was still murdered by another given extraordinary power over him.
2. The people within human rights groups who use this are saying their support for solving a pressing problem is conditional upon the behavior of the marginalized and mistreated among society
3. This leads to over policing and the shutting down of people who are having a very rough time in their lives. We are emotional creatures get over it, nobody is going to be your perfect model.
4. It leads to the model minority dilemma. While a model minority can help to humanize a dehumanized group, relying on this too much tends to lead to marginalized people having to reinforce the thinking of the majority. It relies on tokenizing and being used to further the narratives that hurt everyone in the group the token is a part of. We see this in Blair White and Candace Owens and the log cabin republicans in texas. They are the shield in which racists and other bigots can hide behind to avoid criticism. This is still abusive on a fundamental level, often the model minority gains confidence and acceptance by saying “i’m not like them” thereby escaping abuse by assimilating into the already abusive culture. This construct relies heavily on survivorship bias which tends to reinforce the society which mistreats certain people by requiring others to bootstrap. Dr. King had a thing to say about the ridiculous notion of bootstrapping.
I’ve got news for ya. This doesnt work, as soon as you mess up on this perfect image they will hate you just as much as they already have.
So should we toss respectability politics?