Elite capture : how the powerful took over identity politics (and everything else) / Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò.

  • Táíwò, Olúfẹmi O.
Date:
2022
  • Books

About this work

Also known as

How the powerful took over identity politics (and everything else)

Description

"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, Táíwò 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 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."-- From publisher's description.

Publication/Creation

Chicago, Illinois : Haymarket Books, 2022.

Physical description

viii, 157 pages ; 19 cm

Notes

"Elite capture happens when the advantaged few steer resources and institutions that could serve the many toward their own narrower interests and aims"--Page 22.

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references (pages 122-146) and index.

Contents

What is elite capture? -- Reading the room -- Being in the room -- Building a new house -- The point is to change it.

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    Medical Collection
    HM753 2022T13e
    Open shelves

Permanent link

Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9781642597356
  • 164259735X