Being in the Room Privilege: Elite Capture and Epistemic Deference

The call to “listen to the most affected” or “center the most marginalized” is ubiquitous in many academic and activist circles. But from a societal standpoint, the “most affected” by the social injustices we associate with politically important identities like gender, class, race, and nationality are disproportionately likely to be incarcerated, underemployed, or part of the 44 percent of the world’s population without internet access - and thus both left out of the rooms of power and largely ignored by the people in the rooms of power. In this talk, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, associate professor of philosophy at Georgetown University, discusses problems of elite capture and deference epistemology and proposes constructive epistemology as an approach to organize new rooms that focus on structural, practical change.
His talk at Holy Cross, held November 17, 2022, was sponsored by the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture. Learn more at www.holycross.edu/mcfarlandcenter.