Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers in charge of administering many of the anti-poverty programs of the time. Wolfe presents the office as corrupt, continually gamed by hustlers diverting cash into their own pockets. The essay centers on the irony of these failed programs fortifying not the diets but the resentment and contempt of the Black, Chicano, Filipino, Chinese, Indian, and Samoan communities of San Francisco. Wolfe describes hapless bureaucrats (the Flak Catchers) whose function was reduced to taking abuse, or "mau-mauing" (in reference to the intimidation tactics employed in Kenya's anti-colonial Mau Mau Uprising) from intimidating young Blacks and Samoans, who are seen as reveling
Mau movement general failure to understand and respect Samoan culture also sowed the seeds for a revitalised resistance to colonial rule. Logan was replaced by Colonel Robert Tate. The groundswell of support among Samoans for the Mau came from the leadership of Samoan "matai", the heads of families in Samoa's traditional socio-political structure. Family and chiefly title connections, a central part of Samoan culture, were used to harness support. The success of the Mau in gathering national support showed that "fa'a Samoa" was still strong despite colonialism. Samoans of mixed parentage, facing discrimination from both cultures but with the advantage of cross-cultural