identity politics

identity politics (uncountable)

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

   Synonym: identitarian polititics

   • 1997, Richard Dyer, White, →ISBN, page 8:

     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.

   • 2000, George Schöpflin, Nations, Identity, Power: The New Politics of Europe, page 9:

     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.

• identity politician