Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (born 1990) is an American philosopher and professor of philosophy at Georgetown University. He is the author of two books: Reconsidering Reparations and Elite Capture. Grist.org has described him as "one of America’s most prominent philosophers" and "the most vocal philosopher working on issues related to climate change". Táíwò regularly contributes articles to publications such as The New Yorker, The Guardian, and Foreign Policy, in addition to academic journals.

Early life and education
Born in 1990, Táíwò lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for the first year of his life, before moving with his family to Cincinnati, Ohio, where there was a large Nigerian community. His parents had both immigrated from Nigeria in the early 1980s to attend graduate school in the United States. His mother worked in pharmacology at Proctor & Gamble, while his father was an engineer who stayed at home to take care of his brother, who is autistic.

Táíwò earned his BA in philosophy from Indiana University and his PhD in philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Career
Táíwò first gained widespread notice with an essay published in 2020 in The Philosopher on the "limitations of 'epistemic deference'". In the essay, he argued that amplifying certain voices, including his own, on the basis of group membership in what is perceived as a marginalized community, did not necessarily solve fundamental problems and could impede formation of authentic relationships. His book Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics and Everything Else builds on this piece, as well as a related essay which appeared in Boston Review.

His theoretical work is heavily influenced by the Black radical tradition, contemporary philosophy of language, materialist thought, social science, German transcendental philosophy, activist histories, and activist thinkers. His most recent book Elite Capture examines how elites have appropriated radical critiques of racial capitalism to further their own agendas.

Critical reception
In a review for Race & Class, Franklin Obeng-Odoom calls Reconsidering Reparations "brilliant" despite "some serious faux pas". Praising Táíwò for his "vigorous" and "serious" examination of time and space, Obeng-Odoom writes, "By building on his insightful critique of Rawlsian approaches to reparations, his powerful reconstruction of reparations and emphasis on how we need to take the remaking of the future into account in reconsidering reparations, it is possible to move past the shoots to the roots of ecological imperialism."

Writing in the academic journal Mind, Megan Blomfeld positions Táíwò as an "accessible writer and skilled storyteller" whose work was pitched at a general audience. She notes that Táíwò devotes only 20 pages to a review of the philosophical literature on reparations – most likely not enough to dissuade proponents of other views.