Yes that's why America is the way it is today. You see, Africans, Lati@s and First Nations peoples had widespread low-self respect. When you don't respect yourself, you chain yourself up and load yourself onto slave ships, you wrap yourself up in a diseased blanket, and you only resist half-heartedly against armies with notions of Manifest Destiny. We should learn more from our white friends. They seem to be the most respected and they do so well, it must be their high self-esteem! Maybe this is new knowledge to Kendrick, and he didn't respect himself enough to win over Macklemore. I'm sure now that he's super respectful like Bill Cosby he'll rise to the top!

edit: The revealing of the Uncle Toms and rape apologists in famous people we support has been depressing.

Edit2:

The debate seems to be around what Kendrick meant by "respect". If he meant "respect ourselves" to be 'gain our own power to not be pushed around' and "them to respect us" as 'them realizing that they can't push us around anymore', that's not bad. But if he meant "respect" to mean 'being respectable members of mainstream society' and "them to respect us" as 'they are cool with us now, so they treat us nicer', then he's an Uncle Tom.

Many of us have been burned by respectability politics before. We had to unlearn them, challenge our parents on them. A Black celebrity with Uncle Tom views is nothing new to us. If he elaborates and it turns out he was thinking the other way, I'll question why he's telling the game plan to the opposition, and you can be certain that he'll get more hate from Fox News than "offended" Black folk.

Edit3:

I suspect when people say that we're waiting on the white man to save us and to be accepted by white society, it comes from a place of frustration that all Black Americans or the whole diaspora hasn't banded together to revolt yet. All of the personal struggles to survive and the grassroots movements may seem too little and too slow. Not enough self-love and inner-respect to rise up. The steps of liberation seems to be 1. Realize that you're marginalized and what white supremacy is and how it works & 2. Combine powers with other woke people and rise up. Folks who are rearing to swiftly get step 2 done, ready to ride at dawn are frustrated with people still dealing with step 1. "I'm sick of you talking about white supremacy! It exists! Let's do something about it". Of course there are people doing stuff about it, just not enough for a full revolution. Some are doing Step 1 and Step 2.

It gets interesting with the people who haven't started Step 1. These are often considered Don Lemons and special snowflakes. They don't get what Step 1-ers are talking about in this post racial society. If following the rules like not looking whites in the eye worked for granddad, pulling up your pants will work for you. I guess sometimes some Uncle Tom mess can sound like Step 3 freedom fighting words if interpreted the right way. Honestly I tried to think of an example, but everything is too much of a stretch. Boy didn't say a word about not depending on white people. I wish he did, but he really slap didn't. If he said "If we don't have respect for ourselves, how do you expect for us to gain the power to overcome oppression?" maybe. But even that would be some mess because the self-determination and will to survive that is obviously there (other wise how do you exist? how come your ancestors weren't extinguished?), it just hasn't gotten us to a clear victory. Because the fight is hard. And the fight is long. Step 1-ers, keep talking to educate and wake people up. Harriet said that she could have freed more if they knew they were slaves. Step 2-ers, work the plans and the grassroots. More soldiers are on the way for you. Nobody give up.