identity politics

noun

plural in form but singular or plural in construction

: politics in which groups of people having a particular racial, religious, ethnic, social, or cultural identity tend to promote their own specific interests or concerns without regard to the interests or concerns of any larger political group

Although the UCLA center's standards promoted rigorous history, they set off a major culture war because of their relentless emphasis on identity politics.

—Diane Ravitch

Identity politics is contemporary shorthand for a group's assertion that it is a meaningful group; that it differs significantly from other groups; that its members share a history of injustice and grievance; and that its psychological and political mission is to explore, act out, act on and act up its group identity.

—Catharine R. Stimpson

A number of critics have viewed her work through a lens of identity politics, taking her to be some sort of oracle of Muslim womanhood.

—Lauren Collins

Examples of identity politics in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Your sister-in-law talks a lot about the depredations of identity politics; your teen-age son is obsessed with how much women take from men during divorce; the guy from the hardware store has put half his savings into crypto, using a strategy based on astrology. —Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker, 21 Jan. 2025

Refusing the instant gratification of identity politics 02:33 Trump expected to sign border executive orders at Capital One Arena 08:26 New images emerge from Trump's church service before inauguration Inauguration Watch live Fox News coverage of Trump's inauguration and join the chat below! —Fox News, 20 Jan. 2025

And Democrats still now bear scars from last year’s conflicts over Israel’s invasions of Gaza and Lebanon, their embrace of identity politics and President Biden’s aborted candidacy. —Charles Homans, New York Times, 19 Jan. 2025

Trudeau represents the dystopian world view of the woke industrial complex that damaged all sectors of society with open borders, persistent inflation, identity politics, homelessness, pandemic policies and high taxes. —Letters To The Editor, Orange County Register, 8 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1970, in the meaning defined above