Bad Feminist

Gay asserts that there are dominant cultural ideals and rules, unspoken and ever-changing, about how Black people should be. Black public figures tend to promulgate these unreasonable standards: For example, Bill Cosby and Don Lemon have been notorious in suggesting that Black people could win white acceptance and overcome racism by behaving in certain ways. This phenomenon of respectability politics overlooks institutional racism and places the burden of ending oppression on the shoulders of the oppressed.

For Gay, the better alternative would be for society to allow Black people to be comfortably human. She points out that Black public figures who have achieved success and promulgate respectability politics are rarely willing to help others achieve their level of success. In short, respectability politics cannot end racism because racism doesn’t care about respectability, wealth, education, or status. What is instead required is community support from the bottom up and demands for systemic change.

In 2013, Texas Senator Wendy Davis filibustered a legislative measure trying to close 37 of Texas’s (then) 42 abortion clinics. The filibuster was livestreamed on YouTube, partly because none of the major news networks were covering the story. Gay emphasizes the duality of social media: It can be trivial, but it can also draw attention to significant issues.