Meanings
- uncountableAttempts by marginalized groups to police their own members and show their social values as being compatible with mainstream values, rather than challenging the mainstream for its failure to accept difference.
2 more examples
A greater understanding of respectability politics, particularly in the Progressive Era, and an appreciation for the pervasiveness of debates about respectability within the African American community are two important insights regarding African American politics and reform to come out of the recent scholarship.
2003, Journal of Women's History, volume 15, page 212Although some of these rites contradict the notions of respectabiilty among Black American women I introduce in chapters 2 and 3, they also socialize women into commonly held characteristics—parables of character that I outline throughout the chapter as reminiscent of nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century respectability politics.
2010 September 28, Deborah Elizabeth Whaley, “Introduction”, in Disciplining Women: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Black Counterpublics, and the Cultural Politics of Black Sororities, New York City, New York, United States: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 9
Origin
Coined by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham in 1993 in reference to African-American women who modified their behavior to appease whites.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
respectability politics. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/respectability%20politics
“respectability politics.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/respectability%20politics. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “respectability politics,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/respectability%20politics.
Source: respectability politics on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.