Rasul Miller: The embrace of a politics of respectability has, at times, served as a powerful rhetorical strategy for Black activists. However, as historians like Frederick Harris have pointed out, it came with a political price. It has allowed Black elites to police the Black poor, using the behavior of impoverished Black communities as a scapegoat for patterns of racial inequality (think Bill Cosby’s poundcake speech). In this regard, it resembles the white liberal version of the rhetoric of personal responsibility. Indeed, as Harris points out in his discussion of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, Black respectability politics have served as a de-radicalizing mechanism, undermining Black activists’ calls for economic justice. As he writes, “the rhetoric of respectability helped Obama capture the support of white working-class voters and moderate voters who needed assurance that the candidate would not support policies aimed toward the (black) poor.” Taking into account its many liabilities, Black people’s embrace of the politics of Black respectability has demonstrated the truth of Audre Lorde’s oft-quoted observation that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” More here.