Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò – författare

''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, Olúfẹ�?mi 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.

“Identity politics” is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom and amplifying antagonisms in the media, both online and off. 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 weaponized 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 a binary of “class” vs. “race.” By rejecting elitist identity politics in favor of a constructive politics of radical solidarity, he advances the possibility of organizing across our differences in the urgent struggle for a better world.

A powerful indictment of the ways elites have co-opted radical critiques of racial capitalism to serve their own ends

“Identity politics” is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom. But the “identity politics” so compulsively referenced 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 weaponized 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, Táíwò identifies the process by which a radical concept can be stripped of its political substance and become 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 a binary of “class” vs. “race.” By rejecting elitist identity politics in favor of a constructive politics of radical solidarity, he advances the possibility of organizing across our differences in the urgent struggle for a better world.

Can the nation-state serve social justice? Should social movements work inside or outside the state? What would a just state look like, and how can we get there?Leading a forum in the latest issue of Boston Review, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò identifies fossil capital as the principal obstacle to a more just world. We face an uphill battle against carbon’s capture of the state system, he argues, but state politics remains our best path forward. Respondents—Thea Riofrancos, Mariame Kaba & Andrea Ritchie, Ishac Diwan & Bright Simons, Martin O’Neill & Joe Guinan, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Claudio Lomnitz, and Tara Raghuveer—explore the strategies, possibilities, and limitations of efforts to address the climate crisis and transform the state in the image of justice.Elsewhere in the issue, Leila Farsakh examines the history and fate of the quest for Palestinian statehood, while Joshua Craze reports on the global rise of militias that vie for power with the states that created them. Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix make the case for a “solidarity state” premised on participation, parity, pluralism, and peace. Janice Fine and Hana Shepherd take us inside a compelling new model of labor law enforcement that is reshaping state and local governments across the country. And Bonnie Tenneriello documents the way prisons neutralize reform, following hard-won legislation to end solitary confinement that has done no such thing.Plus, Richard Pithouse talks with S’bu Zikode, leader of the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement, about how South Africa’s poorest citizens are doing thirty years after apartheid; Jonathan S. Blake reviews recent books by Philip Pettit, Charles S. Maier, and Natasha Wheatley; and Peter E. Gordon traces the rise and fall of theory’s engagement with “real questions of suffering and social transformation.”