Part of the reason why a new generation of thinkers and activists has rejected respectability politics is that it’s by necessity a politics of exclusion. With the goal being to gain the respect of those in charge of maintaining an anti-black, anti-woman, anti-queer, anti-trans, anti-poor system, the field of who counts as “respectable” is so narrowed that who and what you organize doesn’t make for an inclusive vision of freedom. Do sex workers count as respectable? Do drug dealers count? Do the incarcerated count? Do low-wage fast food workers count? Do single mothers count? Do high school
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