We are Them: The Lie of Respectability Politics
The central question of Randall Kennedy’s Respectability Politics article, "Is it wrong for black parents to deliver to their children the sort of talks that my parents gave to [him]?" is easy to answer: of course not.
But is the question a fair one? Who would criticize advice that he received from his parents during a time and place when he was a pioneer, crossing into places where an elaborate rationale of black inferiority had previously denied entry? Who could criticize advice that any of the Black readers of Harpers or Black strivers in general likely received in some form?
The question however is whether this question is the important one? Is it the question for these times? And I say no. It obscures the real issue whether Michael Brown the cigar stealer who bullied a shopkeeper was the appropriate face for the Black Lives Matter movement. The same question could be asked about Freddy Gray the petty drug dealer. Is he the right face for a movement focused on securing reform of police tactics and overall reform of the carceral state? My answer is yes they, and others like them, are because we are at a state of recognition that respectability politics is a lie. A lie that the society hands to us, falsely promising that if you follow the rules and present as middle class and educated, or even better, upper middle class, and highly educated, then the American Dream is unlocked for you. That means you must do and be something that other non-Black Americans don't have to in order to have the full rights of citizenship: be more than human to secure life, liberty and property.
Black Lives Matter rightly questions, why do we have to be superhuman? Because our humanity is obscured by Black-ness? Because we are the Other and have to accept that the society cannot accept us unless we bridge the divide and help them see themselves in us? By the very nature of that quest, we put ourselves in the position of accepting that our rights are conditional; that we accept that our humanity demands a performance. And in it all, who are we really? Most important, what of the people who fail in that quest to be better than? What if they are average? Flawed? Made mistakes? Even bad?
I think the next stage of the civil rights struggle is openly seeking to secure rights for the flawed, the imperfect, the human. If you don't fight for the Freddie Grays or the Michael Browns, then you've lost because they are the measure of the rights that we all will have truly attained not by the performance of middle class cultural patterns but by being human.
Where did I arrive at this conclusion? In part, from the abominable way President Obama has been treated over the past eight years by people who have essentially declared he has no office, power or station they are bound to respect. He did everything that was required for respectability; in fact he exceeded the loftiest standard by every measure and yet he has been treated as a base usurper at every turn. So it's ultimately a lie that respectability is the path to freedom for black people.
Concededly, following the rules is a step – to be able to perform culturally appropriately to be employed and not imprisoned. But that's not the same as seeing respectability as the key. Because to do so is to miss seeing that black subjugation comes not from black behavior but from the very existence of racially identifiable people. And if the average, flawed, ordinary Black person is not safe from police brutality then neither are you nor I.
I hope for a day also when black people cease to be collectively publicly lectured and chastised for their supposed collective behavior. I know of no other group subject to such public denigration and disciplining. That's not leadership. Just a gift of punitive delight to everyone who is watching thinking to themselves, “oh, I know he's not talking about me. He's talking about them.” We are them.
–Audrey McFarlane, University of Baltimore School of Law