Elite Capture

A short book that grew out of essays on identity politics and standpoint epistemology. Táíwò takes the term 'elite capture' from the study of development, where it describes how resources and projects meant to serve a group are taken over by its most advantaged members. He argues that the same has happened to identity politics. The idea began with radical Black feminists such as the Combahee River Collective, who used it to build coalitions against shared oppression. It has since been captured by elites in universities, corporations and politics, where it often becomes a matter of symbolic gestures and representation. He criticises 'deference politics', the habit of handing authority to the most marginalised person in the room, arguing that the people in any room are rarely representative and that deference can take the place of action. Against this he proposes a 'constructive' politics, focused on building institutions and redistributing resources and power. He presents elite capture as a feature of a global system he analyses as racial capitalism.

It offers a clear, practical diagnosis of why so much talk about justice changes so little, and an alternative to both performative politics and blanket rejection of identity politics.