Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics

Author: Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This short but impactful book talks about identity politics and how it went from an initial concept meant to build solidarity between different groups who had similar interests to a way for people to further niche themselves down into a set of identities that was then set in opposition to other identities.

This book is a historical and philosophical commentary on the concept of identity politics and how it’s being utilised by elites to maintain class divides.

The author observes that identity politics is largely used nowadays to put people on opposite sides, to set yourself apart from others, but in truth most of us have common needs. Basic things like access to secure housing, education, medical care, food: we all need  this. And whenever there’s a proverbial room where the people in that room have the power to enact change that would help people get those things they need, the irony is that the people in that room are rarely the people in need of those things.

His criticism is that as much as it’s a good thing for us to consciously give voices to those in the room who come from marginalised identities: women, racial minorities, queer people, etc, often the exact people who are representations of those identities in that room where the power is are the elites of the marginalised groups. So while it’s good to not just allow the historically dominant group to dominate the room, we also have to recognise that the house itself needs to be rebuilt in order to ensure that we’re actually getting good results for people in general.

In a simple example, we might consider measuring the progress of gender equality by the proportion of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies who are women. While simply having a woman in that position demonstrates to other women that they can also hold positions of power, if that CEO does not enact policies that help women on a practical level, things like paid parental leave, flexible working, quality health insurance, fair working conditions and pay etc, then the progress is largely symbolic.

Now, obviously, this is something we should expect from all people in power. For all leaders, their goal should be to make people’s lives better, which is unfortunately not something that our neoliberal, capitalist system rewards outright. But it’s the sort of uncomfortable conversation that we need to have with each other and with ourselves when we’re evaluating these sorts of superficial markers of progress.

Things like the number of female CEOs of fortune 500 companies or female presidents or prime ministers of western democracies are often touted as markers of gender progress. I’m not going go down the route of blaming individual women leaders for not making the world a better place overnight, because that’s not on their shoulders alone, but it’s important that we remind ourselves that those numbers aren’t the only markers of progress. And the more significant numbers to most of us will be things like minimum wage, weeks of paid parental leave, number of companies that offer flexible working, hours of free childcare, number of adequately investigates sexual harassment claims, etc.

Táíwò’s arguments are insightful and relevant as identity politics continues to remain a hot topic in today’s political discourse.