Meaning of identity politics | Babel Free

Definitions

Politics focusing on the self-interest and perspectives of people in various groupings, such as ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“Both of you spoke from a perspective that some have called identity politics. This approach began as a way for black women to create space for themselves in feminist and black movements by asserting their identity. It has evolved into a framework that recognizes difference but builds barriers rather than bridges among us by not also discussing ways we learn from each other or ways we are connected.”

“The history of identity politics has however been marked by the increasingly strong and heard voices of, for instance, non-white and working-class women, lesbians and gay men, who do not entirely recognise themselves in these ‘As a…’ claims.”

“There are those who contest the very idea of identity politics or try to reduce it to a minimum. They would prefer that rights be derived wholly from function and reason. Then, there are those who like some identities but not others. Ranged against them, as it were, are the identity politicians, who insist that all problems are derived from identity and should be solved by the criteria of identity.”

“Muzzling Kelly also elevates a semi-professional obscurantist to the status of free speech martyr, and that invites a cacophonous pile-on from the rightwing bobble heads who screech about the left’s obsession with identity politics while shovelling identity politics at their audiences.”

“The pursuit of individual autonomy or “self-actualisation”, for example, has become mired in an identity politics that subsumes the individual into rigidly defined groupings based on ethnicity, gender or sexuality.”

CEFR level