Respectability politics

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Respectability politics, or the politics of respectability, is a political strategy wherein members of a marginalized community will consciously abandon or punish controversial aspects of their cultural-political identity as a method of assimilating, achieving social mobility,^[1] and gaining the respect of the majority culture.^[2] As a sociological term, it is often pejorative, typically used in a manner critical of the ideology.^{[citation needed]}

The term "politics of respectability" was first coined by historian Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham in 1993. According to her, respectability "emphasize[s] reform of individual behavior and attitudes both as a goal in itself and as a strategy for the reform of the entire structural system of American race relations."^[2] Respectability politics is also the process in which privileged members of marginalized groups settle within the social norms of the dominant groups to advance their group's position. There are fields of race and ethnic studies, social movements, and critical theory that may be un-integrated. The purpose of the modernized information respectability politics holds is that it focuses on applying African American studies specifically for black/African women.^[3]

An infamous precursor to respectability politics were Jews for Hitler organizations, such as the Association of German National Jews or The German Vanguard, during the Weimar Republic and the early years of Nazi Germany. These groups sought recognition or assimilation through their outspoken alignment with the ideology and values of the regime, while failing to realize that Nazi antisemitism was not merely a rhetorical tool or a manageable risk.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}