Has Kamala Harris Cracked the Respectability Code?

I want to start by saying that this column concerns a topic that I am only loosely informed about and concerns a debate that I am not a participant in. I’m not a political scientist, and I am definitely not a Black woman. My thoughts on this topic - respectability politics - arise from my observations of politics and experience as a member of the Oakland Police Commission and are my thoughts alone. I would gladly be educated more on this topic by people who are closer to the issue. With those caveats, let me dive in.

What is Respectability Politics? I think the intro paragraph of the Wiki entry is a sufficient summary:

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.

I first heard the term when it was used as a pejorative by one of the commissioners (Ginale, a Black woman) against two other commissioners who were also Black. Ginale was a very vocal commissioner who engaged in outbursts at least once per meeting to assert her position or derail the dialogue that was underway. I don’t think she would disagree with me about this; Ginale used it as a strategy to undermine what she saw as the capitulation of other members to the authority of the police or city attorney. In her view, the other two Black members of the Commission were insufficiently critical of the police department and overly influenced by the desire to be seen as “respectable” leaders. She thought the rest of us were too, but those two Black commissioners came in for her particular scorn.

The other two commissioners disagreed with Ginale. Both were aware of what she meant when she accused them of “respectability politics” but, in their view - expressed publicly, so I am not putting words in their mouths - her aggressive tactics were unproductive and even harmful to the process of police accountability. For example, Ginale seemed to believe that Robert’s Rules of Order were intended to silence marginalized voices and prevent political change. She might be right, however, state law and city ordinance require their usage. What she saw as speaking truth to power was seen by others as rude and disrespectful. People had a hard time hearing Ginale’s ideas because they reacted strongly to the way she delivered them.

This tension in politics - whether or not to use the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house - is a constant. On the opposite end of the spectrum from Ginale, we have Michelle Obama, whose admonition in 2016, “When they go low, we go high,” has hung over the Democratic Party’s struggles to respond to Donald Trump’s and MAGA’s disregard for the norms of politics and civil society. When they say, “Fuck your feelings, snowflake,” we’ve apologized for upsetting them. “Go high” was meant to remind people to register their displeasure at the ballot box, not by climbing into the pig pen. As they say, never wrestle with a pig; you just get dirty and the pig likes it.

Until Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race, most Democrats had begun to despair that our high-road taking would lead to depressed voter engagement in November, and they were right. The message that Donald Trump is a danger to democracy did not break through with voters who are exhausted by the barrage of lies and stupidity. It was like, “DT has been a threat to democracy for ten years. When are you going to do something about it?” (Since nothing we have done so far has worked)

Three weeks later, we are in a very different political moment. The pompous balloon of Donald Trump has been punctured not by being respectful of him and the norms of democracy. I am the one-thousandth person to note that “Wierd” has become Trump’s “emperor has no clothes.” It was name-calling and not civility that broke through his myth of invincibility.

Tim Walz is credited with labeling Trump and MAGA as weird but Walz took his cue from Kamala Harris, who had said that if Trump stalked her around the debate stage the way he did to Hilary Clinton, she would turn and tell him to stop being weird. “Weird” works for a lot of reasons but it’s also a rhetorical example of the perfect way to thread the needle between disruptive politics and respectability politics, and I think Kamala Harris is the master of this technique.

Vice President Harris is, without a doubt, among the Black elite in this country. She is well-educated, well-connected, and politically astute. She is being accused by activists of being insufficiently progressive about Israel and Gaza. She is being called a cop. But when you listen to her speak, when she uses straightforward language like “weird”, “creepy”, or “felon,” she is being disruptive. She is not taking the high road and she’s not taking the low. She’s taking the middle road, calling Donald Trump and his GOP platform by their true names.

Kamala Harris did not persuade Joe Biden to leave the race. I suspect Nancy Pelosi is responsible for that act of political genius. Pelosi is an old school politician who knows how to accomplish the goals of the Democratic Party better than anyone. Arguably Robert Caro should ditch the LBJ bio that he can’t seem to finish and focus on Pelosi. Fortunately, she won’t have to wait for that. She’s just published The Art of Power, and I suspect it’ll sidle in nicely next to The Art of War on the bookshelf. Nancy created the space for Kamala; it was up to Kamala to secure the support and craft the message.

And she has a done a great job doing so. Her connections, savvy, and political capital have been put to great use in consolidating support for her ticket. Now, Harris can settle the debate between Ginale and Michelle by winning the Presidency and showing that honesty and humor are the best way to communicate personal narrative and political values.