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Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else) Paperback – 3 May 2022
by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 228 ratings
'A thinker on fire' - Robin D. G. Kelley Identity politics is everywhere, polarising discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom and amplifying antagonisms in the media. 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 weaponised 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 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 the binary of 'class’ vs. ‘race’. By rejecting elitist identity politics in favour of a constructive politics of radical solidarity, he advances the possibility of organising across our differences in the urgent struggle for a better world.
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Elite Capture
How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else)
‘Worth sitting with and absorbing. While critically examining what happens when elites hijack our critiques and terminologies for their own interests, Elite Capture acutely reminds us that building power globally means we think and build outside of our internal confines. That is when we have the greatest possibility at worldmaking’ - Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of ‘How to Be an Antiracist’
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‘Worth sitting with and absorbing. While critically examining what happens when elites hijack our critiques and terminologies for their own interests, Elite Capture acutely reminds us that building power globally means we think and build outside of our internal confines. That is when we have the greatest possibility at worldmaking’-- Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of ‘How to Be an Antiracist’
‘I was waiting for this book without realising I was waiting for this book'-- Ruth Wilson Gilmore, author of ‘Change Everything: Racial Capitalism and the Case for Abolition’
‘Olúfémi O. Táíwò is a thinker on fire. He not only calls out empire for shrouding its bloodied hands in the cloth of magical thinking but calls on all of us to do the same. Elite capture, after all, is about turning oppression and its cure into a neoliberal commodity exchange where identities become capitalism’s latest currency rather than the grounds for revolutionary transformation. The lesson is clear: only when we think for ourselves and act with each other, together in deep, dynamic, and difficult solidarity, can we begin to remake the world’-- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of ‘Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination’
‘Coursing with moral urgency and propelled by brilliant prose, this is more than argument. It's how we build the power needed to win’-- Naomi Klein, author of ‘This Changes Everything’ (on his previous book)
'Offers important new ways to think about political possibilities in a world increasingly dominated by the ultra-rich'-- Amitav Ghosh, author of the Booker-shortlisted 'Sea of Poppies'
'Anyone concerned with both understanding and transforming the world must read this succinct but mighty book. A invigoratingly subversive gem'-- Minna Salami, award-winning essayist and author of 'Sensuous Knowledge'
‘This book, building on one of the most lucid, powerful, and important essays I can recall reading in recent years, is, in a word, brilliant. Read it―and read it twice. Every sentence contains multitudes.’-- Daniel Denvir, host of The Dig
‘An indispensable and urgent set of analyses, interventions, and alternatives to ‘identity politics,’ ‘centering,’ and much more. The book offers a sober assessment of the state of our racial politics and a powerful path on how to build the world that we deserve’-- Derecka Purnell, author of ‘Becoming Abolitionists’
‘With global breadth, clarity and precision, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò dissects the causes and consequences of elite capture and charts an alternative constructive politics for our time. The result is an erudite yet accessible book that draws widely on the rich traditions of black and anticolonial political thought’-- Adom Getachew, author of ‘Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination’
‘Among the churn of books on ‘wokeness’ and ‘political correctness,’ philosopher Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò’s Elite Capture clearly stands out. With calm, clarity, erudition, and authority, Táíwò walks the reader through the morass, deftly explicating the distinction between substantive and worthy critique and weaponized backlash. Understanding the culture wars is essential to US politics right now, and no one has done it better than Táíwò in this book.’-- Jason Stanley, author of ‘How Fascism Works’
‘Olúfẹḿi O. Táíwò is one of the great social theorists of our generation. Elite Capture is a brilliant, devastating book. Táíwò deploys his characteristic blend of philosophical rigor, sociological insight, and political clarity to reset the debate on identity politics. Táíwò shows how the structure of racial capitalism, not misguided activism, is today’s prime threat to egalitarian, anti-racist politics. And Táíwò’s suggested path forward, a constructive and materialist politics at the radical edge of the possible, is exactly what we need to escape these desperate times. Anyone concerned with dismantling inequalities, and building a better world, needs to read this book.’-- Daniel Aldana Cohen, co-author of ‘A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal’
‘Táíwò's book is an insightful and fascinating look at how it is that elites capture and subvert efforts to better society. Anyone who wants to understand and improve upon the activist movements shaking our world needs to read this book.’-- Liam Kofi Bright, Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics
‘The misuse of identity politics has led to Nancy Pelosi wearing kente cloth but has done little to address actual inequality. Táíwò’s project is reclamation’-- Zak Cheney-Rice, ‘New York magazine’
'One of the most important books I’ve read for cultivating a dedication to progressive change, and for unscrambling some of the cultural frustration of capitalism and its digital revolution'-- Eliz Mizon, ‘Chompsky’
‘A transformational text’-- Emma Dabiri, research associate at SOAS University of London, and author of ‘What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition’
‘An emboldening step towards a constructive politics that aims to collectively free us from the violent overdetermination of our lives’-- ‘ArtReview’
‘Astonishing … a philosophically, morally and politically thrilling book’-- Scott Stephens, The Minefield (ABC)
About the Author
Olufe mi O. Taiwo is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University. His work draws liberally from the Black radical tradition, anti-colonial thought, German transcendental philosophy, contemporary philosophy of language, contemporary social science, and histories of activism and activist thinkers. His public philosophy, including articles exploring intersections of climate justice and colonialism, has been featured in The New Yorker, The Nation, Boston Review, Dissent, The Appeal, Slate, Al Jazeera, The New Republic, Aeon, and Foreign Policy. He is the author of the book Reconsidering Reparations.
Product details
Publisher : Pluto Press (3 May 2022)
Language : English
Paperback : 168 pages
ISBN-10 : 0745347851
ISBN-13 : 978-0745347851
Dimensions : 12.9 x 1.07 x 19.8 cmBest Sellers Rank: 109,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)255 in People of African Descent & Black Studies
353 in Ethnology
364 in Social PhilosophyCustomer Reviews:
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 228 ratings
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Nadia Montague
5.0 out of 5 stars IncredibleReviewed in Australia on 29 January 2023
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I am still taking in lessons from this book.
It’s incredible. The exploration of politics of deference and the politics of collective solidarity. Discussing how we can form coalitions for progress. Incredibly powerful work.
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1.0 out of 5 stars Print on demand rubbishReviewed in Australia on 24 April 2024
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Great book, 5 stars for the actual book, it's thought provoking and essential. However, the copy I was sent has numerous printing errors and pages missing, so I think it's just a print on demand scam. Don't waste your money, buy this great book from a real bookshop.
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5.0 out of 5 stars so relavent to modern social movements and current eventsReviewed in the United States on 1 February 2023
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I read it in a book club with the audio book follow along. In three hours and 17 mins. And truly it’s one of the most important books we could probably read in modern times to elevate our social movements and stop leftist in fighting that wastes energy on each other over identity politics. When we need to be unified and fighting against those who wish to truly do us harm.
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Chris Conner
5.0 out of 5 stars Good StuffReviewed in the United States on 11 April 2023
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Finally a history of identity politics, where it came from, its political purpose, and where we went wrong. The text ends with a powerful call to action and thus fulfills Marx's notion of immanent critique--the idea you have to present alternatives in addition to making a critique.
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Nemo
5.0 out of 5 stars excellentReviewed in the United States on 1 August 2022
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A call to action - thoughtful action - and to de emphasise the performance of caring and grievance. Short and well argued with sole great historical analogies and examples.
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Steve K.
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful articulation of a central issue to identity politicsReviewed in the United States on 5 May 2022
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A great book I wish everyone in academia would read.
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kaleem
2.0 out of 5 stars Not focused or hard-hittingReviewed in the United States on 18 August 2022
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I was excited to read this book but it unfortunately basically fails at talking about elite capture in any real way. The book contains a lot of historical content from radical African anti-colonial movements, but the book is far too short to do any justice to actually talking about elite capture in the modern world.
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Thomas
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May 17, 2024
I overall really liked the message of this book and how we need to focus less on attention and representation and more on redistributing social power and resources. There’s great writing here about how the elite class – and the elite class can be comprised of people of many identities, including people of color, women, etc. – can coopt liberation struggles and make social justice more about we just need X number of Y group in the room instead of changing the room altogether. Speaking from my own experience as a queer Asian American I’ve definitely seen both heterosexual and queer Asian Americans I know align themselves with white supremacy and other systems of power while claiming the benefits of being “represented” in a majority white context.
Even though the writing at times felt a bit academic and jargony, the overall thesis is a great reminder to stay aware of one’s power and to focus on redistributing that power (and conditions in which that power is created) in tangible and meaningful ways.
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mark monday
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March 9, 2024
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò's short but passionately argued treatise should perhaps have been titled Elite Capture: Don't Trust Anyone Who Is an Elite and That Most Definitely Includes People of Color. But that's less punchy and, more importantly, it's a tough message to package for identitarian progressive activists (and diversity/inclusion personnel), who often promote the idea that immutable characteristics like race or sex automatically equals progressive credentials that command deference. Which of course is laughably reductive. POCs are not a progressive monolith by any means; they aren't any kind of monolith. Nor should they ever be viewed as such because, well, that would be racist.
The subtitle "How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics" is unfortunate because it leads potential readers astray. This book is not a guide or an overview on "how" elites have co-opted supposedly progressive institutions. Its reasoning for such capture is certainly correct, but quite basic: people who gain power are often corrupted by that power because that power ends up serving their own interests. A person who has bootstrapped themselves up from a background of poverty may find that they would like to make sure their new middle or upper class status remains in place, and so will promote policies that support their continued enfranchisement and level of wealth, rather than supporting policies that would help uplift their former lower-classmates.
'Tis human nature, I suppose. I've seen it happen many times over the years while at the nonprofit where I work: passionate, activist POCs (comfortable with delivering angry lived-experience testimonials and, nowadays, weepy land acknowledgments) who rise in the ranks and/or get what they want (whatever that may be) and who then begin supporting hierarchical systems of control in an almost knee-jerk fashion. Rather than continuing the questioning of authority they once espoused from positions that had less authority. As a POC myself, I should be mad at the hypocrisy, but I can only shrug. Well, I'm in a position of authority too. Er, welcome to the club, my fellow sellouts! LOL?
Táíwò's prime example of a POC who embodies "elite capture" and that fooled progressive identitarians into thinking his platform is likewise progressive - by sophisticated use of progressive messaging and branding - is of course Obama. He calls this tendency to "center the most marginalized" - whether or not they actually believe in progressive or leftist policies - deference politics and he too-gently connects it to standpoint epistemology (the belief that those groups most affected by challenges are those who understand those challenges the best, and therefore should have their perspectives centralized). And so Obama - mixed-race but viewed as black - came to be seen as someone who embodies progressive values, simply because of his status as a black man, and so ignoring his actual upper-middle class background and his very clearly centrist and neoliberal political stances. I really appreciated that Táíwò also used himself as an example of this tendency, and how his identity as a black American would often trump consideration of his actual ethnicity and class background (Nigerian-American, presumably middle class).
This short book is also rather thin in terms of ideas; deconstructing deference politics appears to be Táíwò's primary aim, yet he handles his topic perhaps too gingerly. That said, there were quite a few things that I enjoyed and/or learned about. Individuals and activist groups like Carter G. Woodson, Lilica Boal, the PAIGC; the idea that Portugal was the world's first superpower (not sure that I agree, but it's fascinating to consider); "A constructive political culture would focus on outcome over process" (I fully endorse that!); game theory as a way to understand both politics and personal decision-making in terms of identity and claiming identity; the idea that trauma does not teach and is not about life lessons, but is rather about the nobility of survival. On that last idea, I particularly loved Táíwò's critique of "when trauma's importance and prevalence are framed as positive bases for social credentials and deference behaviors, rather than primarily as problems to deal with collectively." Of course, he's completely in error looking at trauma from a sociopolitical rather than a psychological perspective - trauma is an inherently individual experience - but he makes a good point when it comes to the fact that experiencing trauma does not mean that one is now an expert on the source of that trauma.
Unfortunately, a big issue came early for me in the book, and it cast rather a shadow over all that followed: Táíwò's odd misreading of the fable of The Emperor's New Clothes. The author posits that fable as an allegory of power and how power is expressed; per Táíwò, everyone sees that the emperor has power and so of course they will want to join that power base (or at least not be threatened by it) by pretending to see and then exalt those imaginary new clothes that he now has on. What Táíwò overlooks is the basic moral of that tale. The merchants were able to fool the emperor because they played on his vanity and insecurity, telling him that only the stupid or the foolish would be unable to see his new finery; the emperor did not want to be seen as foolish or stupid, and so he pretended that he saw and then put on some amazing clothes. And so everyone else did likewise, pretending to see a fabulous outfit - because who wants to be perceived as stupid or foolish? The fable is a psychological analysis highlighting a key part of human nature; it is not a sociopolitical evaluation of how systems of power are enacted. Can't believe the author didn't see that!
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Steffi
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July 17, 2022
The second book by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò my latest intellectual crush (I quickly checked in the acknowledgment section whether he thanked his girlfriend. He did not!).
This builds very much on his 2020 essay " Being-in-the-Room Privilege: Elite Capture and Epistemic Deference" (The Philosopher) and although it has some interesting insights, I think I have literally EXHAUSTED the subject of identity politics. LOL. According to Táíwò the issue is not identity politics per se but the elite capture of the latter. That's fine too but also not entirely new. As far I can see, no Marxist critique of identity politics ever said that these 'identity issues" (gender, race, sexuality whatever) were not crucial but that they were being appropriated in defense of 'intersectional empire' (how much I love this expression).
Side note: Also, if I read correctly, a Trump return (yes, the guy who was just proved to have launched a coup d'etat) is fairly inevitable as is Cold War II at best or WW III at worst, global hunger, not to mention inevitable climate change disaster. I am five minutes away from retreating into hedonism, maybe I am halfway there (going to watch the Kardashians right after summarizing this book). OR I quit my job and join armed struggle. But this current state of collective sleepwalking into catastrophe unbearable.
I did enjoy the 'epistemic deference' critique though, you know, the specific form of standpoint epistemology when white folks pass the mic to (equally elite) brown folks lol. To say something in support of the already agreed upon discourse. So, how his essay started was when a white chick reached out to him to write a certain piece about racial injustice since he was black not knowing that he wasn’t your 'typical African American' but an offspring of the Nigerian diaspora elite in the US 😊 I also like when he goes like, sure, diversity in podcast is important but don’t confuse this project with addressing racial capitalism. There is no relationship between these projects ❤ The answer, of course, is real solidarity not some tokenistic identity politics crap (although I feel like liberal feminism is so much grosser than liberal anti-racism).
I am going to put a pin in this identity politics stuff for now and focus on matters of war and peace. I suppose.
2022
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lala
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July 30, 2022
Taiwo's arguments are clunky as he juggles trying to define identity politics as a concept for himself, and struggles generally define the phenomenon of elite capture. He does not explain the history behind the dominant identity politics today, which was disappointing (we really need a book that does this). His book is not accessible to or comprehensible to the majority of liberals and radical liberals that actually need to read this book. I will use this book as a tool when dealing with obnoxious identity politics academics, but the working class comrades I know who are intellectual enough to understand this book are already either Marxists or anarchists.
I do appreciate the articulations of the terms deference politics, standpoint epistemology, and constructive politics. I do appreciate the idea that identity politics can be practiced towards solidaristic, constructive ends, and separates out deference from identity politics. I like the argument that deference politics is the result of the elite capture of identity politics. I like a lot of his callouts of the woke olympics and trauma social clout fragile narcissistic radical liberalism that dominates today, his arguments for real relationship building and real material change, and his stories about a diversity of tactics and relationships in revolutions and anti-colonial struggles.
But he is such an academic and philosopher and clearly not as much of an organizer, most sadly revealed in an interview where he said building up the Stalinist cult "PSL" and the DSA were the answer/step forward for constructive politics. I do appreciate though just how sassy his callouts can be- for example saying that people in Flint don't need their "voices centered" but need their water cleaned.
A solid 3 stars.
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Zach Carter
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May 17, 2022
Elite Capture is a short but brilliant synthesis of the state of the struggle. The way Olufemi weaves history with present organizing allows you to see clearly how the elites have taken control of the terrain on which we think about and practice organizing. I particularly enjoyed the history of the PAIGC and Paulo Freire, and I often think back on Pedagogy of the Oppressed as a compass for my own thinking. Now I can add to that Olufemi Taiwo's concise and enlightening breakdown of constructive vs. deferential politics.
We're all sick and tired of hearing about the "culture wars," etc. Now we have a vocabulary to describe what it is that's actually happening: Elite Capture.
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Ava Cairns
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August 12, 2023
Elites running the world is nothing new---but with the ever-monopolizing big tech companies, climate change fueled by centuries of settler colonialism/exploitation, and racial capitalism, I know many people feel the intensification of the 'elite capture.'
Táíwò's strength is weaving these major issues together, and explaining why our approaches to global crises must change.
The first chapters are the most incredible, in my opinion. Especially when Táíwò ties in insights/stories from Carter G. Woodson, author of The Mis-Education of the Negro.
However, I suppose the weaknesses of this book boils down to how short this book was (121 pages not including notes/footnotes).
Each time Táíwò offered a specific example, (whether it was PAIGC'S fight against Portugal imperialism, Flint, Michigan citizens fight against the MDEQ, or Adaiye collaborating with Walter Rodney), the information was both digestible and thought-provoking.
Where Táíwò awry, in my opinion, was when he relied too often on metaphorical anecdotes (such as the Emperor's invisible clothes), or the idea of "building a new room."
I think the Emperor's invisible clothes is an interesting story, and I agree with the concept of "building a new room." I believe, however, that this text space could've been replaced with concrete examples on how it is possible to abolish racial capitalism, or why undoing 'elite capture' is crucial.
The last thing I want to touch on is Táíwò qualms about standpoint epistemology and deferential politics.
What I took away from these qualms is what I like to call positioning the mic, rather than passing the mic. It is important, in other words, to position the mic in an accessible space, opening the conversation further.
But if all we do is "pass" the mic to a person who may experience the struggle, such as a trans person experiencing transphobia, then we may end up tokenizing/symbolizing the new speaker, and centering the guilt of the "passer."
However, if we position the mic, then there is no act of "passing." The so-called "savior" is taken out of the equation.
Positioning the mic may exist in safe spaces, sure, but positioning the mic to me mainly has to do with opening spaces, such as hiring a person (most likely BIPOC) to speak/teach about racism within the company, rather than just inviting this person to speak on one occasion.
The definition of standpoint epistemology is thorough, but while Táíwò mentions Liam Kofi Bright's work on understanding this epistemology, he does not mention Patricia Hill Collins. This is unfortunate because Patricia Hill Collins, a Black woman who was a pioneer in augmenting modern Black Feminist Thought, seems to be erased from present-day conversations on standpoint epistemology. And how can you talk about standpoint epistemology without talking about Patricia Hill Collins?
With that being said, this is a must-read-book. Very timely. I wonder if we will include the work of Eritean computer-scientist Timnit Gebru in his second edition. That would be amazing. I hope there is a second edition or a new book authored by Táíwò.
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jasmine sun
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December 20, 2022
2.5 — not awful, but very meh / obvious to anyone who has any background in modern left political debates. lands in the awkward spot of not rigorous or complex enough for a full book, but much too long for an essay. structure and evidence felt scattered, and didn’t think alternative perspectives were taken seriously enough. kind of disappointed given how predisposed i should be to agree with this book
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Mehrsa
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December 19, 2022
This is a difficult book to review because while it’s very smart in some parts, the parts are actually greater than the whole. And more than that, some of the brilliant insights get muddled when more stories and more examples are added on. I hope the author keeps writing about these issues. He’s absolutely right to call out the phenomenon of elite capture and identity based platforms but some of the later examples (Paulo Freire in Brazil for example) we’re not examples of the same thing, which made me wonder if what he’s writing about is the phenomenon of elite capture or is it the age-old
Problem of the sellout? Is that the same? I would love to read more by this author about that, actually.
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Andrew
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April 19, 2023
This is a book that wasn't very original for me, but I think a lot of well-meaning people should read it. Lemme 'splain.
I've always found identity politics as performed by guilty-conscience liberals to be mildly sus (if a natural reaction), while at the same time I do my best to recognize the struggles that marginalized groups have that can't necessarily be boiled down to the sort of class politics I generally engage in. Par instance, I'll probably never feel like my life is on the line when I get pulled over in a routine traffic stop, I'll never know what it's like for my family to reject me on the basis of my sexual orientation, I'll never look at an ordinary nighttime street and wonder whether I can safely walk down it alone.
And yet I also know that Kamala Harris, say, sitting in office does nothing to help out working class black women. I know that a land acknowledgment by an elite institution is little more than a pro forma apology that if anything runs cover for the companies that fund their endowments. I know that no matter how well Crazy Rich Asians did at the box office, the last thing I need is another cheesy, condescending piece of Hollywood trash about crazy rich anyone, made worse by how self-congratulatory it is in its "inclusiveness."
Point of the story? Less po-faced talk about bodies, spaces, and voices, more recognition of material conditions, and fuck any elite that tells you otherwise. Like I said these aren't new ideas to me, but to every nice middle-class American liberal that wants to "do better," as the saying among fragile online weirdos goes? Read this shit.
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Paul Burkhart
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August 12, 2022
This really threw me for a loop. It is a pretty provocative book that challenges a lot of aspects of the social justice orthodoxy of today. It gives language and voice to a lot of the questions, confusions, and difficulties that many feel intuitively about “deference politics”: does focusing on identity markers or trauma histories actually get us closer to reshaping the material reality that created those traumas? Or is it just an easy way for people (or more specifically, elites) to feel like they are “good people” while not actually changing the status quo?
I really appreciate the sense in which Taiwo’s goal is to actually radically change the world, and he feels this is done at the institutional and societal level and less at the individual dialogue or small group “spaces”-level. As one review of the book put it, “While deference politics identifies the main problem as a lack of black female CEOs, constructive politics critiques the very existence of a CEO class.” I really resonate with his sense that communal organizing based around the liberative goal at hand ends up producing more results than policing who is in the room and how they exist there.
I always enjoy books that challenge all the usual “sides” of an issue. He’s saying a lot of the same things that, for example, a Tucker Carlson might say. From my right-leaning friends, family, and media sources, I have often heard these sorts of sentiments. “Focusing so much on different identity markers gets in the way of seeing us as just human—it just divides, it doesn’t unite us into a group that can do things.” “To whatever extent there are still problems among these groups, simply ‘representation’ isn’t going to fix it.” “Why would we want ourselves or our credentials to be defined by the worst thing that have ever happened to us or people like us?” “Why don’t we choose the best person or group to get the job done and less on all the identity markers?” “Can I only talk about an issue I’m concerned about if I am a marginalized member of that minority? I can’t have an opinion or say in this?” “The problem is more about class and economics, not race and identity.” Etc. Etc. Etc. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.
However, I love that Taiwo can say things along these lines but then says them even as he promotes the black radical tradition, liberation politics, environmentalism, redistribution of material goods, and a Marxist seizing of the means of production by the organized common people.
It also matters that he is the one saying these things. Even if my gut agrees with much of what he is saying, I still don’t think it is my place to say it. I still think that my own intuitions are largely shaped by my limited cultural perspectives, so I do have to listen to others’ voices (also known as deferring to them) before my own in these matters. So, if there is any truth to these sentiments that roll around inside of me (and other white people) sometimes, that needs to be voiced from within that marginalized community and tradition and not from outside people like me.
I also really like how his account of the “elite” is more dynamic than the usual critique. While some people talk of this “elite” as almost an organized conspiracy trying to keep people down to maintain power, Taiwo talks more about eliteness as such. It almost sounds like the way many people speak of white supremacy and structural racism: you don’t have to be a racist to be perpetuating or acting out of racism and doing racist things. Similarly, in Taiwo’s account, the identity of the “elite” is slippery and shifting and can change context to context. It’s not always the rich white male at the top of an organization. It can be whoever is wielding power in a given space—including the marginalized individual that’s been given deference, the group microphone, and the authority to declare who is in and out of the “room”. “Eliteness”—and who benefits from identity and whatever space they’re in—shifts and morphs, perhaps even moment-by-moment, based on a lot of different factors. And there are no easy answers.
So Taiwo’s book is an excellent critique of the cultural situation as it is and gets us closer to having good guardrails on our justice efforts. Having his thinking in mind might give us at least a little more pause before abandoning a certain legislative effort because it doesn’t go far enough, or before declaring someone “lost” to the cause or “canceled”. I know my own privilege makes it too easy for me to say this, but I am all for anything that gets us more coalition building and less bitter division.
However, I’ve got a good number of questions, confusions, and critiques of this book that keeps me from going all in with Taiwo.
First, I think his account has a lot of internal contradictions. He’ll beautifully articulate how even in small groups this sort of eliteness and elite capture happens, but then doesn’t seem to recognize how this still exists within the examples he gives. Nearly every example and story of someone’s life who embodied these principles is the story of someone who at various times, in various settings, were themselves elites through whom good things were accomplished as a function and direct consequence of them being an elite.
Carter Woodson was able to be published and be in the leadership of numerous entities. The revolutionaries of the various countries he mentions all became the Presidents and leaders of those countries, and they had to force and coerce a lot of their changes onto citizens that may or may not have consented to that rule and those changes. In the Flint water crisis, they still had to form groups with leaders and PR representatives and lawyers—and even then, progress only happened by pressuring the existing power structures to use their power towards better ends, not by tearing down the power structures and creating an entirely different material world. Even the labor unions, which Taiwo speaks of as almost the purest form of coalition building and constructive politics, have many layers of bureaucracy, leadership, committees, and power. You simply cannot escape the existence of elites and the necessity to try and use it to better ends.
And I think this critique flows from maybe the essential, foundational difficulty I have with his entire view: his Anarcho-Marxist commitment to a materialist account and analysis to everything. That philosophical commitment guides the entire book. To him, the unequal material ordering of society is the problem and reordering those material conditions to a greater amount of equality is the solution—no matter how that comes about. In the book, there seems to be no difference in how he tells these “success stories”—whether a group educates kids into liberation or uses guerilla warfare to slaughter thousands of the “oppressors”. What seems to matter is “getting shit done” by whatever means seems most effective in bringing the redistribution of material resources.
I think this is why he almost rolls his eyes at all the “identity politics” and “deference” afforded to marginalized folks—it’s not about changing the material reality, but reordering society through changing immaterial structures, cultures, dynamics, and relationships.
And this is where I cannot follow Taiwo. My account of reality is wrapped up in both material and immaterial aspects of the world. In fact, I don’t think I can give a coherent account of why I would want to change material realities for others if it weren’t for immaterial aspects. And not just religious ones. Even abstract secular ideas of human rights and human dignity don’t get a lot of attention in Taiwo’s book, which is seeking a purely pragmatic and materialist politics.
He says in passing two times in the book, I believe, that a coalitional politics is inherently a moral politics because it would be about accomplishing moral ends, but he doesn’t go further than that. I think he anticipates people being like, “wait, you want me to have a coalition with that person who has done those things to people like me?”, and he seems to just sort of wave off the concern saying, “don’t worry—if we’re trying to accomplish good things, it’ll attract good people.”
But that’s not how it works. Human societies are greater than the sum of their materialist conditions. On Taiwo’s terms, we’ve had coalitional politics for most of this country’s history and it has not ended up more just or materially equal. That’s precisely what has given rise to “deference politics” in the first place. “Justice” is itself an immaterial, undefined value and good which you cannot pursue, give an account of, or fight for on purely materialist, pragmatic grounds. It is wrapped up in ethics and morality—ideas notably absent from Taiwo’s writing.
Taiwo’s account (and Marxism in general, I believe) has an incredibly deficient view of human psychology. Not only is it almost exclusively limited to material interests of people, but it narrows those interests too much. History has shown us that when you don’t give actual attention, focus, and intentionality to the makeup of “the room”, it’s almost always going to end up being powerful people that look like one another making decisions on behalf of others without that power who do not look like them. It seems like Taiwo would say this is fine as long as their goal is ultimately material justice and liberation. But humans (and groups) don’t have just one interest or goal at a time. That group may have come together to accomplish a good, liberative goal, but their individual beliefs on the why and how will differ greatly based on their interests, experience, and identities.
Within my faith tradition, it matters how and why good things are accomplished. It is simply not worth it to (as one writer once put in) “build God’s kingdom using the devil’s tools”. No matter the goal, the flow of power, dignity, and voice are foundational to the “goodness” of the good in question. I would love to see Taiwo engage Black liberation theology. There, he would find the idea of the “blackness of God”, where God is found in whatever group is marginalized, powerless, and in need of liberation. Power, then, flows from the bottom-up. On one hand it is, in a sense, uber-deference politics: we not only recognize authority based on identity, but we recognize God based on it. But at the same time, it emphasizes the suffering nature of history that brought us here. Divine deference to “the lowly” is not a gleeful, plundering, victorious process, but one where God has entered suffering to bring good from it, not to make the suffering itself good or a badge of honor. It is a deference borne of compassion, not privilege.
If I were to try and synthesize the good I take from Taiwo’s book with other convictions of mine, I would maybe go int his direction. Not a “coalitional politics”, but a “compassional politics”, where no one’s hands are clean and everyone requires compassion—even the oppressors (this is also Paulo Freire’s belief—an activist whom Taiwo endorses wholeheartedly without engaging the entire moral and ethical structure of this thinking). The “deference” in this case is not artificially lending expertise, power, or privilege to people based on trauma or identity, but is an exercise of love, lament, and recognition. But the slipperiness of this eliteness and privilege from which we need liberation means that this all needs to happen with a profound and difficult ethic of mutuality among us. The compassion has to be tenaciously from all sides, for all sides.
Thinking about this, I’m reminded of the idea of right-of-way in the law. My understanding is that, technically, no road laws say who “has” the right-of-way. No one ever has it; the laws only say who is supposed to yield it. That would be my view here with regard to privilege and power.
Especially in micro (and maybe even mezzo) contexts and interactions, privilege and eliteness are too shifting to say with confidence at any particular moment who has it, who doesn’t, and who needs to act differently based on it. Instead, in my view, we need a radical mutual commitment to yielding privilege one to another. I as a white straight cis male yield space and privilege to those marginalized so I can see divinity itself and integrate their experience into mine; but I also do this in hope that they can yield the privilege that affords them so they may also take in my experience and voice.
This mutual self-giving ethos is idealized and difficult, but shooting for it is a much better way, I think, than simply saying our stories and identities and histories just get in the way of making our lives better. Because honestly, my suspicion is that humans crave knowing and being known more than they long for better material circumstances. And frankly, I’m also guessing that sort of ethos would lend itself to even more fruitful coalitions that can change material reality more than Taiwo imagines.
So in the end, like I said, I really appreciate how Taiwo’s thinking complexifies these newish social justice norms that we’ve maybe implemented too simplistically. The world is simply not separated so neatly into good and bad people, or elites and regular people. Marginalization is not itself a privilege or qualification, and some ways of focusing on or emphasizing that can be performative and actually further entrench powerful interests. We definitely should have less policing of ever-more granular aspects of society, speech, intent, and position, and we should seek new kinds of coalitions with tangible goals in mind.
But to neglect these factors altogether is to go too far and to reduce reality even more simplistically than identity politics might. Human interests are far more complicated than arrangements of mere resources and materials. We ought not get inordinately focused or stuck on one side of that reality to the detriment of the other, but we should keep both in mind. We fight for and attend to material realities not as ends in and of themselves, but as ways to support immaterial human dignity and flourishing; and likewise, we attend to “identities” and privilege and oppression in order to see the effects of material reality as it is now and to imagine what it could be and how to get there—together.
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