Elite capture

Let's talk about what happens when movements get taken over.

Researcher Tai Wo named this elite capture.

What happens when a movement grows and gets taken over directionally and substantively by whoever has the most social and material capital in the room? Identity-based framings can speed this up rather than slow it down, because the people with capital often share identity markers that let them position themselves as representative voices for the whole group.

His argument is that elite capture is structural.

It's happening when nobody organizes against it.

Historically, this has been called movement capture, with origins in a study of the early NAACP's relationship with its largest funder, a predominantly white philanthropic foundation called the Garland Fund.