The talked about black people being able to get farther and be socially accepted if they act right. Gay supports her argument by talking about how celebrities like Bill Cosby and Don Lemon support respectability politics through their comments about the black community.
People who deviate from this unspoken rule are seen as the issue. She further supports this idea by talking about the unspoken rule that people are held to that contributes to how they think, speak, and act.
The concept of this argument is that if minority people act by what is deemed “proper,” they will fit into society and overcome the institution of racism. Gay describes this as the trouble that comes when black people don’t act in a way that fits the dominant cultural idea of how black people should act.
