Identity Politics & Elite Capture
...The Combahee River Collective’s manifesto speaks from a deep understanding of elite capture, and represents a principled response to it. Their stance was informed by their experiences in movement politics. Historian Duchess Harris recounts that, in 1961, President John F. Kennedy convened a Commission on the Status of Women. It was split into four consultative bodies, one of which was the Consultation on Negro Women. This event inspired sequels, and the third National Conference of Commissions on the Status of Women birthed the meeting that founded the National Organization for Women (NOW), which founders hoped would serve as an “NAACP for women.”...
