loppear reviewed Elite Capture by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
“Identity politics” is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom and amplifying …
a solid Haymarket, straddling academia and pop essay
4 stars
Elite capture conscripts non-elite into propagating the structures of the elite. Riffing on "regulatory capture", colonial capitalism's constant simplification of rich relationships to consumptive signalling, and weaving in accounts of Guinea-Bissau's liberation from Portugese rule, this emphasizes the need to return "identity politics" to "alliance across difference" and not accept the shape of the rooms we're given that are more "did this or that brand post a #BLM tweet quick enough?" than "what would societal structural changes look like to hear the marginalized?"