Elite Capture

"Identity politics" is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom and amplifying antagonisms in the media, both online and off. But the compulsively referenced phrase bears little resemblance to the concept as first introduced by the radical Black feminist Combahee River Collective. While the Collective articulated a political viewpoint grounded in their own position as Black lesbians with the explicit aim of building solidarity across lines of difference, identity politics is now frequently weaponized as a means of closing ranks around ever-narrower conceptions of group interests.
But the trouble, Olúf--mi O. Táíwò deftly argues, is not with identity politics itself. Through a substantive engagement with the global Black radical tradition and a critical understanding of racial capitalism, Táíwò identifies the process by which a radical concept can be stripped of its political substance and liberatory potential by becoming the victim of elite capture-deployed by political, social, and economic elites in the service of their own interests.
Táíwò's crucial intervention both elucidates this complex process and helps us move beyond a binary of "class" vs. "race." By rejecting elitist identity politics in favor of a constructive politics of radical solidarity, he advances the possibility of organizing across our differences in the urgent struggle for a better world.

Olúf--mi O. Táíwò is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University. He is also the author of Reconsidering Reparations.

Chapter One: Identity Politics, 2021 Identity Politics: It's Not What You Think It Is Elite Capture: The Bigger Problem Chapter Two: What is Elite Capture? E. Franklin Frazier Who Run the World? Elites Does Democracy Matter? Capture at Every Scale Chapter Three: Reading the Room Carter G. Woodson The Ground We Stand On The Theory of Mis-Education Elite Capture: Game It Out Chapter Four: Being in the Room Introduction The View from Inside the Room Better Blueprints Chapter Five: Building a New House Changing Rooms: Paulo Freire Rebuild the House: The PAIGC We've Got This Getting Out the Hammers Building a New House Chapter Six: The Point is to Change It Andaiye What the Constructive View Asks of Us