““Respectability politics is the dogged belief that if black people just shape up, dress right, and act right, racists would suddenly have a dramatic change of heart, and stop their racist ways. Respectability politics puts all of its faith in racist gatekeepers (telling us that we must change to appeal to their inherent, good-natured humanity), and puts none of its faith in black people living under the weight of poverty and discrimination, scrabbling, trying to make a life any way they can. Poverty is narrow and limiting. People work within the confines of it. That they have to do that is not the problem. Poverty is the problem.””
![“Adam Clayton Powell's entire political career has to be looked at in the entire context of the American history and the history of, and the position of the Afro- American or negro in American history. [He] has done a remarkable job in fighting for rights of black people in this country. On the…” quote by Malcolm X](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/caa/malcolm-x-213_adam_adam-clayton-powell-s-entire-political-c_6932.jpg)
