So I can't remember how I found the recommendation to read this book, but it came really highly recommended to understanding why people in power use identity politics to prevent change from happening. I imagined that this book would be similar to "White Trash" where the author gives the history of the creation of whiteness as a category to create a feeling of superiority amongst the poor white crowd and then the subsequent creation of white trash to describe this group to avoid intermingling with them. Instead this book was near impossible to understand because it just felt like talking point after talking point and so many academic buzzwords that I honestly don't even know what I read. I've worked in health policy for a very long time and I think that one thing that these elites do well to maintain power is to keep things really simple and not convoluted so that most people can understand what it means. The issue with this book is that it's coming in at a doctorate level of understanding and comprehension and then using theories to describe things instead of real life experiences. ( )

This is short but powerful, a great synopsis of how the wealthy elite control everything. I've read This is How We Get Free and Pedagogy of the Oppressed recently, which were both referenced quite a bit in this. I'd say this is far more accessible than either of those though. ( )

Olúfẹ́mi O.Táíwò is an American academic and writer. The book discusses ideas from Black American history and from writers discussing resistance to European colonialism, particularly in Brazil and in Africa. The Wikipedia entry (linked) has some detais of this work. ( )

http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2022-10.html#taiwo ( )

Read the introduction and first chapter. Not a book for me.

Would be interested in a more even-handed, non-political analysis of “elite capture.” Of course, there are always “elites” who are running things, for their own advantages, That’s the whole point of there being an elite! If they do a crappy job (defined in lots of ways) they lose power and some other elite gradually takes over. Perhaps Hunter/Gatherer groups don’t have elites, but everyone else sure does. My only hope is for an elite that retains its power while still allowing everyone else to prosper as much as possible.