Elite Capture

How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else)

By: Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

Narrated by: Jaime Lincoln Smth

A powerful indictment of the ways elites have co-opted radical critiques of racial capitalism to serve their own ends

“Identity politics” is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom. But the “identity politics” so compulsively referenced 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, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò deftly argues, is not with “identity politics” itself. Through a substantive engagement with the global Black radical tradition, Táíwò identifies the process by which a radical concept can be stripped of its political substance and become 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.

©2022 Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Very informative

The author points out the problems with identity politics and offers a possible solution to the current situation at the end of this book.

Must read for anyone who wants a better world

Incredibly in-depth analysis of our current organizing efforts for a better world. It gave the language I was seeking and couldn’t find.

Much to Consider

The performance and the work were insightful and well done. This should be required listening for advocates and teachers.

Short but Dense

This book is a smaller one, but the topics it discusses are so very real and extremely packed. The book was also amazingly written and had such pertinent themes and I'm glad to have been able to read this and learn from it.

An Essential Read

This book was excellent. Densely packed with information, sources, analysis, and arguments; yet it remained easily digestible. The writing flows smoothly, and the narration is eloquent.

This is a must-read for anyone who wants to create a better world, but has been frustrated by the often shallow and preformative use methods by many, although not all, of today's activist circles. This book demolishes the nonsensical right-wing culture war responses to change and lays out a better path for leftists and centrist progressives to follow towards a better future.