“Why ‘Taking the High Road’ Won’t Save Us and Maybe a Little Shade Will”
“In fact, the ‘high road’ is covertly coded language that leads Black folks to believe that if they act in a way that others deem respectable, that we can elevate ourselves above our own oppression. Taking the high road applies pressure on the victims of oppression to modify their anger and rage in order to package their experiences and reactions for consumption and judgment. The fact is: how Black folks choose to express themselves should never be a measurement of their worthiness to live lives free of harm and domination.
Who gets to judge what the high road is or isn’t? The same folks who protect domination and systems of oppression…
White Supremacy teaches that Black folks are animalistic. It forces Black folks have into dehumanized and oversimplified stereotypes and tropes. A myth within White Supremacy is that Black folks are sub-human and so “take the high road” often becomes a way of telling Black folks to “act civilized.” Of course White Supremacy also asks us to be hyper-sexual, fertile, and aggressive when the white gaze requires it and so how we show up in the world is always impacted by white comfort and white needs.
Tamping down our emotional experiences and the “less acceptable” parts of emotional expression is an act of limiting the fullness of our humanity. Therefore, creating space for the expression of our petty feelings is empowering in the face of dehumanizing respectability politics.”
Related: “A Harvard psychologist explains why forcing positive thinking won’t make you happy”; “We don’t need Lincoln-inspired racial ‘unity.’ We need whites to stop being racist.”
