Copyright The Boston Globe
Abdallah Fayyad’s “What if we are misremembering the civil rights movement?” (Ideas, Nov. 2) reminded me how respectability politics can hold back progress. For decades, public interest lawyers fighting for justice, from racial equity to marriage equality, have been obsessed with picture-perfect clients, as if our rights had to wait for white picket fences. But real change happens when we roll up our sleeves and get messy. We can’t wait for our turn to speak or to be invited to the table. The fight for dignity and fairness is even more urgent in a society that doesn’t know how to confront federal overreach. This means taking positions that may be controversial and standing with the most vulnerable, such as people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
