The politics of respectability plays a crucial role in the lack of racial dialogue in America. What is there to talk about when there is already a socially constructed solution? The question is, has it really worked? A primary example is President Barak Obama, truthfully explained by Michael Eric Dyson in his interview with The Aspen Institute, “who is sharper than he is? who’s more intelligent than he is? Who wears a suit? Still gets called boy by some people. Harvard pedigree, an undergraduate at Columbia…it hasn’t worked”. (1)

Historically, the politics of respectability has been the extensively accepted solution for black people in the yearning for humanity. House negroes believed that it was necessary to act and talk a certain way in order to receive affection from their, then seen as, master. Today, the same mentality has transformed, yelling at young black men to pull up their pants and shaming young black women for having premature pregnancies, “in the belief that convincing the broader white public in our inherent humanity, would somehow win over those who were advocates of the opposite viewpoint, that black people were essentially not human..” (2) said Dyson.

“You have to work twice as hard just to be half as good” is a well-known aphorism among pertinacious African Americans. Yet the social system in America is still immutable, white colleagues referring to black men as boys and white women perceiving prominent black women nothing more than the help. The repercussions of slavery and white supremacy still circulate through the social structures that make up American society. The fascinating phenomenon, however, is the need for African Americans to hold themselves accountable for the racial epidemic that counts them as systematically inferior. Through the politics of respectability and other means, African Americans conclude that adjusting and regulating their behaviors to the assumed pleasure of the socially superior will simply correct 400 plus years of mistakes.

The dialogue sounding racial politics in America does not often include the input or opinion of white people. Within these discussions, African Americans place themselves at the forefront, and rightfully so; however, the conversation resolves with African Americans attempting to undertake a burden that is not theirs to carry. People of color are not infected with the disease of white supremacy and racism, and neither benefit from colonialism and privileges awarded through systematic supremacy. White people are responsible and therefore, must exclusively remove this virus from the social makeup of society simply because they created it.

“The kind of politics of amnesia practiced in broader white society, at least in the presence of others, is counterproductive to that kind of conversation when we can create a forum where we can honestly and openly engage,” said Dyson.

The lack of involvement in racial dialogue from white participants is detrimental to the process of eradication. Therefore, in order begin this long and challenging process black people must stop holding themselves accountable, through the politics of respectability, and white audiences must gain a level of comfort in spaces and contribute, to discussions surrounding racism and systematic oppression. Let’s talk about Race.

To watch this interview or listen to the podcast.