Professor Randall Kennedy’s provocative essay on respectability politics has elicited a range of impassioned responses. But there are at least two points, which have gone unacknowledged, that are worth raising here. The first is the difference between having leaders who command broad respect and respectability politics. This is an important distinction. The former may be necessary, even if the latter is highly contested. The second point is the shift in context that has caused the respectability politics of the Civil Rights Movement, which most would concede wrought great social change, to become a hindrance rather than an aid to continued racial justice and equality. This makes respectability politics not wrong per se, but an idea out of time.
In the first instance, Professor Kennedy notes that one aspect of respectability politics involves leaders taking care to present a positive image of themselves to command respect from opponents and also to avoid alienating potential allies. This is a point well-taken. The Black Lives Matter Movement has had tremendous success in bringing sustained attention to the problem of police violence against blacks in this country. This movement, and their efforts, are sorely needed and ought to be encouraged.
However, the leadership of the Black Lives Matter Movement has rightly come under criticism recently. For instance, the decision by two Black Lives Matter leaders to disrupt the campaign event of democratic presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in Seattle this past August has been condemned by some as reflecting poorly on the movement and its leadership. One news story described the leaders “demanding the microphone” from Sanders, “shouting ‘We are angry!’” at the crowd, and even reported a “struggle” that ensued between the leaders and event organizers as they tried to regain control of the microphone and allow Sanders to resume his address. Ultimately, Sanders had to leave the venue without addressing the assembled crowd of thousands, an outcome he described as “disappoint[ing]” and “unfortunate.” In this regard, it is true that leaders must be above reproach; their ability to command the respect of opponents and, more importantly, the support of allies is necessary to the sustained success of any protest movement. This is no less true today than it was during the civil rights era, and the Black Lives Matter Movement ought to take note.
However, respectable leaders and respectability politics are not one in the same. In addition to calling for respectable leaders, Professor Kennedy notes that respectability politics also advocates that blacks generally take care “to avoid saying or doing anything that will reflect badly on [other] blacks [or] reinforce negative racial stereotypes.” This is where respectability politics gets it wrong. The role of a leader is to give voice to the voiceless and seize power for the powerless. Thus, even if leaders must demonstrate themselves to be above reproach, they must ensure that their claims are on behalf of not only themselves (and others like them), but also those who, though differently situated, are no less deserving of dignity and equality.
The second issue is the continuing utility of respectability politics. It is probably true, as Professor Kennedy recounts, that the respectability politics employed by civil rights leaders of the 1950’s and 1960’s (and abolitionists before them) were both necessary and effective for that time. But much has changed. The critical question is does respectability politics remain the right approach now? In answering this question, I am reminded of the haunting words of Dr. King spoken in 1967 during a Vietnam War speech. Although Dr. King had often included the phrase “how long, not long” in his speeches, by 1967 Dr. King seemed a decidedly more impatient and less hopeful man. In that moment, he felt compelled instead to say, “We are faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now . . . We must find new ways to speak for peace [ ] and justice. . .” Perhaps it is time to acknowledge, as Dr. King remarked during his last days, that respectability politics has wrought all it will and it is time to find “new ways to speak for peace [ ] and justice.”
—Stacy Hawkins, Rutgers University- Camden School of Law