Race Rights and the Law Blog

            Anti-Muslim fear and animus – or “Islamophobia” – has been prominently featured in this year’s presidential campaign.  Donald Trump has regularly appealed to societal derision for Islam and Muslims during his campaign for the Republican nomination. Last month, Ben Carson (in)famously proclaimed that “[He] would not advocate to put a Muslim in charge of this nation,” a position based…

The Organ Grinder’s Monkey: a short essay on the so-called politics of respectability Respectability is no way to live a life.  Respectability is not even living. The so-called politics of respectability is neither respectable nor political.  Animals and machines cannot be political.  Respectability is a minstrel show.  Organ grinder's monkey is not a self-respecting political position.   "Q: Why…

This is the dilemma: we tell our children to behave, do well in school, and conform if they want to move up in society but this strategy does not work on a macro level.  I am not willing to completely cast away with the respectability argument but I think we should be respectable in our private lives but never tire of pointing the finger at the structural racism. Bill Cosby (when he was…

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…

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…

The Contradiction of Respectability Politics Professor Randall Kennedy’s provocative essay “Lifting as We Climb: A Progressive Defense of Respectability Politics” exposes a fundamental contradiction faced by subordinated groups across the world: they are held individually responsible to overcome systemic inequities and yet collectively guilty for wrongdoings of individuals belonging to their…

A Respectful (But Not Respectable) Dissent Against Black Respectability Politics In an article entitled “Lifting as We Climb: A Progressive Defense of Respectability Politics”—which appears in the October 2015 issue of Harper's Magazine—Professor Randall Kennedy of Harvard Law School defends what he terms “a sensible black respectability politics.”  The term “respectability politics” typically…

In her classic song "Respect," Aretha Franklin asks the listener to "find out what it means to me."  According to the dictionary, respect is "a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements."  This matches the "definition" of respect most of us learned as children: respect is something that is earned, not given. That, in a nutshell,…

Respectability, Malcolm X, and Dad All of the conversation about respectability politics is nothing new particularly in light of a recent article by Harvard Law professor Randall Kennedy.  It used to be called “being bourgie”.  And some of the same compelling and lame arguments on both sides of the debate were made back then.  It got me thinking about an episode from my teen years  and a lesson I…

In the respectability argument I hear echoes  of Bill Cosby's criticism of black youth who wear saggy pants and speak Ebonics.  He conveniently forgot the language used by the characters in his hit television show "Fat Albert and the Gang,"  which I thoroughly enjoyed as a child.  I believe there is a dialect that is appropriate for the courtroom and for some sectors in the market place, in that…