Answer:
A. degrade:treat or regard (someone) with contempt or disrespect.
Explanation:
B. In the sentence it uses the words "now" and "demands respect". By these words/ phrases it shows how due to her mother's teachings in the past of never letting anyone degrade her, she "now" demands respect. Thus meaning that the correlation between disrespect and degrade is then made when reading the sentence and it's clues.