View source for Identity politics

{{Short description|Politics based on one's identity}}
{{use dmy dates|date=August 2018}}
{{Redirect|Sexual politics|the book|Sexual Politics{{!}}''Sexual Politics''}}
{{Redirect|Identity Politics|the 1989 book|Identity Politics (book){{!}}''Identity Politics'' (book)}}

'''Identity politics''' is politics based on a particular identity, such as [[ethnicity]], [[Race (human categorization)|race]], [[nationality]], [[religion]], [[Religious denomination|denomination]], [[gender]], [[sexual orientation]], [[Socioeconomic status|social background]], [[political affiliation]], [[caste]], [[Ageing|age]], [[education]], [[disability]], [[opinion]], [[intelligence]], and [[social class]]. The term encompasses various often-[[populist]] political phenomena and rhetoric, such as governmental migration policies that regulate mobility and opportunity based on identities, left-wing agendas involving [[intersectional politics]] or [[class reductionism]], and right-wing nationalist agendas of exclusion of national or ethnic "others". 

The term ''identity politics'' dates to the late twentieth century, although it had precursors in the writings of individuals such as [[Mary Wollstonecraft]] and [[Frantz Fanon]].<ref name="Heyes">{{cite web |last1=Heyes |first1=Cressida |title=Identity Politics |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/Entries/identity-politics/ |language=en |date=16 July 2002}}</ref> Many contemporary advocates of identity politics take an [[Intersectionality theory|intersectional perspective]], which they argue accounts for a range of interacting systems of oppression that may affect a person's life and originate from their various identities. To these advocates, identity politics helps center the experiences of those they view as facing systemic oppression so that society can better understand the interplay of different forms of demographic-based oppression and ensure that no one group is disproportionately affected by political actions.<ref>{{cite web |title=Systemic Oppression and Trauma |url=https://drexel.edu/hunger-free-center/research/briefs-and-reports/systemic-oppression-and-trauma/ |website=Center for Hunger Free Communities |publisher=Drexel University |access-date=12 August 2024 |location=Philadelphia, PA 19104 |date=June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Garza|first=Alicia|title=Identity Politics: Friend of Foe?|url=https://belonging.berkeley.edu/identity-politics-friend-or-foe|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Smith|first=Barbara|title=It's Really Up To Us: Barbara Smith on Combahee, Coalitions and Dismantling White Supremacy|url=https://millennialsarekillingcapitalism.libsyn.com/its-really-up-to-us-barbara-smith-on-combahee-coalitions-and-dismantling-white-supremacy|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://monthlyreview.org/2019/01/01/a-black-feminist-statement/|title=A Black Feminist Statement|date=January 2019|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Contemporary identity [[Label (sociology)|labels]]—such as people of specific race, ethnicity, sex, [[gender identity]], [[sexual orientation]], age—are not mutually exclusive but are, in many cases, compounded into one when describing hyper-specific groups. An example is that of [[African-American]] [[homosexual]] [[women]], who can constitute a particular hyper-specific identity class.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15295030903015062|doi=10.1080/15295030903015062|title="Queer Nation is Dead/Long Live Queer Nation": The Politics and Poetics of Social Movement and Media Representation|year=2009|last1=Gray|first1=Mary L.|journal=Critical Studies in Media Communication|volume=26|issue=3|pages=212–236|s2cid=143122754|url-access=subscription}}</ref> 

Criticism of identity politics often comes from either the [[Centre-right politics|center-right]] or the [[Far-left politics|far-left]] on the political spectrum. Many [[Socialism|socialists]], [[post-left anarchism|anarchists]] and [[Marxism|Marxists]] have criticized identity politics for its divisive nature, claiming that it forms identities that can undermine their goals of [[proletariat]] unity and [[Class conflict|class struggle]].<ref name="KišičekŽagar2013">{{Cite book |title=What Do We Know About the World?: Rhetorical and Argumentative Perspectives |last=Runjić-Stoilova |first=Anita |publisher=[[University of Windsor]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-920233-70-2 |location=Ontario |pages=471 |url=https://doi.org/10.22329/wsia.01.2013 |last2=Galić |first2=Josip |editor-last=Kišiček |editor-first=Gabrijela |series=Windsor Studies in Argumentation |chapter=The Representation and Reception of Paraphrase in Newspaper Headlines |doi=10.22329/wsia.01.2013 |s2cid=153740492 |quote=One of the most famous rallying cries of communism ''Workers of the world, unite!'' |access-date=2025-12-26 |editor-last2=Žagar |editor-first2=Igor Ž. |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Niezen2008">{{cite book|author=Ronald Niezen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8W6xPPdYLcC&pg=PA129|title=A World Beyond Difference: Cultural Identity in the Age of Globalization|date=15 April 2008|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4051-3710-2}}</ref><ref name="Parenti">{{citation|last=Parenti|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Parenti|title=Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism|year=1997|publisher=[[City Lights Bookstore|City Lights Books]]|location=San Francisco|isbn=978-0872863293|page=[https://archive.org/details/michael-parenti-blackshirts-and-reds/page/151 151]|url=https://archive.org/details/michael-parenti-blackshirts-and-reds|via=[[Internet Archive]]|access-date=2025-12-26|quote= Identity groups tend to emphasize their distinctiveness and their separateness from each other, thus fractionalizing the protest movement.}}</ref> On the other hand, many conservative [[think tank]]s and [[news media|media]] outlets have criticized identity politics for other reasons, such as that it is inherently [[Collectivism|collectivist]] and prejudicial. Center-right critics of identity politics have seen it as [[Political particularism|particularist]], in contrast to the [[universalism]] espoused by many [[Liberalism|liberal]] politics, or argue that it detracts attention from non-identity based structures of oppression and exploitation. 

A leftist critique of identity politics, such as that of [[Nancy Fraser]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fraser|first=Nancy|title=From Redistribution to Recognition? Dilemmas of Justice in a 'Post-Socialist' Age|chapter=From Redistribution to Recognition? Dilemmas of Justice in a "Postsocialist" Age |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/8569335|date=2014 |pages=21–50 |doi=10.4324/9781315822174-8 |isbn=978-1-315-82217-4 }}</ref> argues that political mobilization based on identitarian affirmation leads to surface redistribution—that is, a redistribution within existing structures and relations of [[means of production|production]] that does not challenge the status quo. Instead, Fraser argued, identitarian deconstruction, rather than affirmation, is more conducive to leftist goals of economic redistribution. Marxist academics such as Kurzwelly, Pérez, and Spiegel, writing for ''[[Dialectical Anthropology]]'', argue that because the term ''identity politics'' is defined differently based on a given author's or activist's ideological position, it is analytically imprecise.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kurzwelly |first1=Jonatan |last2=Pérez |first2=Moira |last3=Spiegel |first3=Andrew D. |date=2023 |title=Identity politics and social justice |journal=Dialectical Anthropology |language=en |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages= 5–18|doi=10.1007/s10624-023-09686-9 |s2cid=256894138 |issn=0304-4092|doi-access=free }}</ref> The same authors argue in another article that identity politics often leads to reproduction and [[Reification (fallacy)|reification]] of [[Essentialism|essentialist]] notions of identity, which they view as inherently erroneous.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kurzwelly|first1=Jonatan|last2=Rapport|first2=Nigel|last3=Spiegel|first3=Andrew|date=2020|title=Encountering, explaining and refuting essentialism|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343029871|journal=[[Anthropology Southern Africa]]|volume=43|issue=2 |pages=65–81|doi=10.1080/23323256.2020.1780141 |hdl=10023/24669 |s2cid=221063562 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>

== Terminology ==
The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' traces the phrase "identity politics" to 1973.<ref>
{{oed | identity politics}}, quoted from [[Todd Gitlin]] writing in ''1984 Revisited: Prospects for American Politics'', edited by Robert Paul Wolff (Knopf, 1973), page 27.
</ref>

[[Mark Mazower]] writes of the late 20th century: "In general, political activism increasingly revolved&nbsp;... around issues of [[Identity (social science)|'identity.']] At some point in the 1970s this term was borrowed from [[social psychology]] and applied with abandon to societies, nations and groups."<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Mazower
 |first1               = Mark
 |author-link1         = Mark Mazower
 |year                 = 1998
 |title                = Dark Continent: Europe's twentieth century
 |publication-place    = New York
 |chapter              = The Social Contract in Crisis
 |publisher            = Vintage Books
 |isbn                 = 978-0-307-55550-2
}} 
</ref>

During the late 1970s, increasing numbers of women—namely Jewish women, women of color, and lesbians—criticized the assumption of a common "woman's experience" irrespective of unique differences in race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and culture.<ref name="Ackelsberg 1996 87–100">{{Cite journal|last= Ackelsberg|first= Martha A.|date= 1996|title= Identity Politics, Political Identities: Thoughts toward a Multicultural Politics|url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/3346926 |journal= Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies|volume= 16|issue= 1|pages= 87–100|doi= 10.2307/3346926|jstor= 3346926 |issn= 0160-9009|url-access= subscription}}</ref> The term ''identity politics'' was (re-)coined by the [[Combahee River Collective]] in 1977.<ref>{{Cite book |title= Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology|publisher= [[Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press]]|year= 1983|isbn= 0-913175-02-1|editor-last= Smith|editor-first= Barbara|location= New York, NY|pages= xxxi-xxxii}}</ref> The collective group of women saw identity politics as an analysis that introduced opportunity for Black women to be actively involved in politics, while simultaneously acting as a tool to authenticate Black women's personal experiences.<ref>{{Cite book|title=How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective|editor-last=Taylor|editor-first=Keeanga-Yamahtta |year= 2017|isbn= 978-1-60846-855-3|publisher=[[Haymarket Books]]|location= Chicago|oclc= 975027867|title-link=How We Get Free|editor-link=Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor}}</ref> In the ensuing decades, the term has been employed in myriad cases with different connotations dependent on context.<ref name="Wiarda-2016" /><ref name="Heyes" /> It subsequently gained currency with the emergence of [[social activism]],{{Clarify|reason=Social activism has long preceded the 80's, what does "emergence" mean exactly?|date= July 2020}} manifesting in various dialogues within the [[feminist movement|feminist]], American [[civil rights movement|civil-rights]], and [[LGBT]] movements, as well as within multiple [[nationalist]] and [[postcolonial]] organizations.<ref name=OB/><ref>{{Cite web|last= Gray|first= John|title= Divided we stand: identity politics and the threat to democracy|url= https://www.newstatesman.com/john-gray-identity-politics-contemporary-francis-fukuyama-lies-bind-kwame-anthony-appiah-review |access-date= 2020-06-11|website=www.newstatesman.com|date=26 September 2018|language= en}}</ref>

In academic usage, the term ''identity politics'' refers to a wide range of political activities and theoretical analyses rooted in experiences of injustice shared by different, often excluded social groups. In this context, identity politics aims to reclaim greater [[self-determination]] and political freedom for marginalized peoples through understanding particular [[paradigm]]s and lifestyle factors, and challenging externally-imposed characterizations and limitations, instead of organizing solely around ''[[status quo]]'' belief-systems or traditional party-affiliations.<ref name="Heyes" /> ''Identity'' is used "as a tool to frame political claims, promote political ideologies, or stimulate and orient social and political action, usually in a larger context of inequality or injustice and with the aim of asserting group distinctiveness and belonging and gaining [[Power (social and political)|power]] and recognition."<ref name="OB">{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Oxford Bibliographies |author= Vasiliki Neofotistos|title= Identity Politics|url= http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0106.xml|publisher= Oxford University Press|year= 2013|access-date= 18 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181027214156/http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0106.xml|archive-date=27 October 2018|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}
</ref>

== History ==
The term ''identity politics'' may have been used in political discourse since at least the 1970s.<ref name="Wiarda-2016">{{cite book |last=Wiarda |first=Howard J. |title=Political Culture, Political Science, and Identity Politics: An Uneasy Alliance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1hHtCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 |date=8 April 2016 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames|Abingdon]] |isbn=978-1-317-07885-2 |oclc=982044314 |orig-date=1st pub. [[Ashgate Publishing]]:2014 |access-date=21 February 2018 |quote=There are disputes regarding the origins of the term 'identity politics' .... Almost all authors, even while disagreeing over who was the first to use the term, agree that its original usage goes back to the 1970s and even the 1960s. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819161909/https://books.google.com/books?id=1hHtCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 |archive-date=19 August 2017 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all }}</ref> The first known written appearance of the term is found in the April 1977 statement of the [[Black feminist]] [[Socialism|socialist]] group, [[Combahee River Collective]], which was originally printed in 1979's ''Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism'',<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4SqXDwAAQBAJ Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism]'', ed. Zillah R. Eisenstein (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979)</ref> later in ''Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology,'' edited by [[Barbara Smith]], a founding member of the Collective,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology|publisher=[[Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press]]|year=1983|isbn=0-913175-02-1|editor-last=Smith|editor-first=Barbara|location=New York, NY|pages=275}}</ref> who have been credited with coining the term.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Collier-Thomas|first1=Bettye|last2=Franklin|first2=V.P.|title=Sisters in the struggle African American women in the civil rights-black power movement|date=2001|publisher=New York University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8147-1603-8|page=39|edition=[Online-Ausg.].|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iR6NVzFEntgC&pg=PA194|access-date=11 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180617165603/https://books.google.com.au/books?id=iR6NVzFEntgC&pg=PA194|archive-date=17 June 2018|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Harris |first=Duchess |chapter=From the Kennedy Commission to the Combahee Collective: Black Feminist Organizing, 1960–1980 |title=Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement |publisher=[[NYU Press]] |date=2001 |isbn=0-8147-1603-2 |page=300}}</ref> In their terminal statement, they said:<ref>{{Cite book|title=Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology|publisher=[[Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press]]|year=1983|isbn=0-913175-02-1|editor-last=Smith|editor-first=Barbara|edition=1st|location=New York, NY|pages=275}}</ref>

{{Blockquote
| quote     = [A]s children we realized that we were different from boys and that we were treated different—for example, when we were told in the same breath to be quiet both for the sake of being 'ladylike' and to make us less objectionable in the eyes of white people. In the process of consciousness-raising, actually life-sharing, we began to recognize the commonality of our experiences and, from the sharing and growing consciousness, to build a politics that will change our lives and inevitably end our oppression....We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work. This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression.
| author    = Combahee River Collective
| title     = "The Combahee River Collective Statement"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://circuitous.org/scraps/combahee.html|title=The Combahee River Collective Statement|access-date=4 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224021117/http://circuitous.org/scraps/combahee.html|archive-date=24 February 2017|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref>
|source=|book=
}}
Identity politics, as a mode of categorizing, are closely connected to the ascription that some social groups are oppressed (such as women, [[ethnic minorities]], and [[sexual minorities]]); that is, the idea that individuals belonging to those groups are, by virtue of their identity, more vulnerable to forms of oppression such as [[cultural imperialism]], [[violence]], [[exploitation of labour]], [[marginalization]], or subjugation.<ref name="Heyes" /> Therefore, these lines of social difference can be seen as ways to gain empowerment or avenues through which to work towards a more equal society.<ref name="Crenshaw-1991"/> In the United States, identity politics is usually ascribed to these oppressed minority groups who are fighting discrimination. In Canada and Spain, identity politics has been used to describe [[Separatism|separatist]] movements; in Africa, Asia, and eastern Europe, it has described violent nationalist and ethnic conflicts. Overall, in Europe, identity politics are exclusionary and based on the idea that the [[silent majority]] needs to be protected from [[globalization]] and [[immigration]].<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-050718-033542|doi-access=free|title=Identity Politics and Populism in Europe|year=2020|last1=Noury|first1=Abdul|last2=Roland|first2=Gerard|journal=Annual Review of Political Science|volume=23|pages=421–439}}</ref>

During the 1980s, the politics of identity became very prominent and it was also linked to a new wave of social movement activism.<ref name="Calhoun">{{cite book |last1=Calhoun |first1=Craig |author-link1=Craig Calhoun |title=Social Theory and the Politics of Identity|editor=Craig Calhoun|publisher=Blackwell |year=1994 |isbn=978-1-55786-473-4}}{{page needed|date=September 2017}}</ref>{{Additional citation needed|date=February 2023}} [[Social movement]]s have a significant influence on the law through statutory and constitutional evolution according to [[William Eskridge]].<ref>Eskridge, William N. "Channeling: Identity-Based Social Movements and Public Law." ''University of Pennsylvania Law Review'', vol. 150, no. 1, 2001, pp. 419–525. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3312920. Accessed 6 Nov. 2023.</ref>

== By race or ethnicity ==
{{See also|Color consciousness|Race-conscious policy}}

=== In the United States ===
[[History of ethnocultural politics in the United States|Racial identity politics dominated American politics]] in the 19th century, during the [[Second Party System]] (1830s–1850s)<ref>Daniel Walker Howe, "[https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/77/4/1216/850758 The Evangelical Movement and Political Culture in the North During the Second Party System]," ''Journal of American History'' (1991) 77#4 pp: 1216–1239.</ref> as well as the [[Third Party System]] (1850s–1890s).<ref>Jon Gjerde, ''The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830–1917'' (1999).</ref> Racial identity has been the central theme in [[Politics of the Southern United States|Southern politics]] since [[End of slavery in the United States of America|slavery was abolished]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Woodman |first=Harold D. |date=February 1997 |title=Class, Race, Politics, and the Modernization of the Postbellum South |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2211941 |journal=The Journal of Southern History |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=3–22 |doi=10.2307/2211941 |jstor=2211941 |access-date=May 6, 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Similar patterns which have appeared in the 21st century are commonly referenced in popular culture,<ref>{{Cite news |author=John O'Connell |date=31 October 2019 |title=The Literary Influences of Superstar Musician David Bowie |url=https://www.newsweek.com/2019/11/15/literary-influences-superstar-musician-david-bowie-1468145.html |work=[[Newsweek]] |quote=As the husband of a Muslim woman from Somalia, [[David Bowie|Bowie]] couldn't help but be highly attuned to racial identity politics.}}</ref> and are increasingly analyzed in media and social commentary as an interconnected part of politics and society.<ref>{{Cite magazine |author=Tessa Berenson |date=6 November 2018 |title=How President Trump Put Race at the Center of the Midterms |url=https://time.com/5444761/donald-trump-midterms-race-candidates/ |magazine=[[TIME]] |quote=Some Republicans worry that Trump's focus on racial identity politics so close to the election is undercutting their message to swing voters on subjects like the economy and health care.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |author=James Kirchick |author-link=James Kirchick |date=19 August 2019 |title=Opponents on the left pouring gasoline on Donald Trump's fires |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/opponents-on-the-left-pouring-gasoline-on-donald-trump-s-fires-20190818-p52i92.html |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |quote=Trump's game isn't difficult to discern. He is practicing the same resentment-based, racial-identity politics that has fuelled his political rise since the earlier part of this decade, when he began expressing doubts that the first black American president was actually born in the United States.}}</ref> Both a majority and minority group phenomenon, racial identity politics can develop as a reaction to the historical legacy of race-based oppression of a people<ref>{{cite book |author1=Tamar Mayor |title=Gender Ironies of Nationalism: Sexing the Nation |date=2012 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0415162555 |page=331 |quote=For example, where a legacy of oppression based on race exists, an identity politics of race can be formed in opposition to that form of oppression, and it can help to provide an occasion for racial pride and resistance to that oppression.}}</ref> as well as a general group identity issue, as "racial identity politics utilizes racial consciousness or the group's [[collective memory]] and experiences as the essential framework for interpreting the actions and interests of all other social groups."<ref>{{cite book |author1=James Jennings |title=Blacks, Latinos, and Asians in Urban America: Status and Prospects for Politics and Activism |date=1994 |publisher=[[Praeger Publishing]] |isbn=978-0275949341 |page=35 |chapter=Building Coalitions}}</ref> This dynamic escalated as a significant segment of white Americans began to perceive social programs and wealth redistribution not as universal public goods, but as zero-sum transfers to Black Americans at their own expense. By reframing economic policy as a racialized grievance rather than a shared class interest, this perception undermined the potential for broad-based labor movements and redirected political energy toward identity-based conflict.<ref>”Decoding the American Paradox: Historical Perspectives on its Immunity to Left-Wing Politics”,|website=https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4695355</ref>

[[Carol M. Swain]] has argued that non-white ethnic pride and an "emphasis on racial identity politics" is fomenting the rise of [[white nationalism]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=Carol M. Swain |author-link1=Carol M. Swain |title=The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration |date=2004 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0521545587 |page=xvi |chapter=Preface |quote=The continued emphasis on racial identity politics and the fostering of an ethnic group pride on the part of nonwhite minority groups.}}</ref> Anthropologist [[Michael Messner]] has suggested that the [[Million Man March]] was an example of racial identity politics in the United States.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Michael A. Messner |author-link1=Michael Messner |title=Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements |date=1997 |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |isbn=978-0803955776 |page=[https://archive.org/details/politicsofmascul00mess/page/79 79-80] |chapter=Racial and sexual identity politics |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/politicsofmascul00mess/page/79}}</ref>

=== Arab identity politics ===
{{See also|Arab identity|Arab nationalism|Pan-Arabism}}

Arab identity politics concerns the form of identity-based politics which is derived from the racial or ethnocultural consciousness of the [[Arabs]]. In the [[Regionalism (international relations)|regionalism]] of the [[Arab world]] and the [[Middle East]], it has a particular meaning in relation to the national and cultural identities of the citizens of non-Arab countries, such as [[Turkey]] and [[Iran]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=Arshin Adib-Moghaddam |title=Middle East Review (IDE-JETRO) |date=2010 |publisher=[[Institute of Developing Economies]] |isbn=978-0980415810 |edition=Volume 7 |location=[[Japan External Trade Organization]] |chapter=The myth of "National Identity": Psycho-nationalism in Iran and the Arab world |quote=Iranian and Arab identity politics thwarted, perverted, and dismembered communitarian thinking for long periods in the twentieth century and the same applies to other forms of psycho-nationalism in Turkey}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Elizabeth Monier |title=[[Contemporary Politics (journal)|''Contemporary Politics'']] |date=2014 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |edition=Volume 20, No. 4 |pages=421–434 |chapter=The Arabness of Middle East regionalism: the Arab Spring and competition for discursive hegemony between Egypt, Iran and Turkey |quote=To explore the role played by Arab identity politics in regionalism with regard to the status of non-Arab states, this article presents a study of the competing hegemonic regional discourses employed by Turkey, Iran and Egypt}}</ref> In their 2010 ''Being Arab: Arabism and the Politics of Recognition'', academics [[Christopher Wise]] and [[Paul James (academic)|Paul James]] challenged the view that, in the post-[[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|Afghanistan]] and [[Iraq War|Iraq]] invasion era, Arab identity-driven politics were ending. Refuting the view that had "drawn many analysts to conclude that the era of Arab identity politics has passed", Wise and James examined its development as a viable alternative to [[Islamic fundamentalism]] in the Arab world.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Christopher Wise |author-link1=Christopher Wise |title=Being Arab: Arabism and the Politics of Recognition |author2=Paul James |author-link2=Paul James (academic) |date=2010 |publisher=[[Arena (Australian publishing co-operative)|Arena Publications]] |isbn=978-0980415810}}</ref>

According to [[Marc Lynch]], the post-[[Arab Spring]] era has seen increasing Arab identity politics, which is "marked by state-state rivalries as well as state-society conflicts". Lynch believes this is creating a new [[Arab Cold War]], no longer characterized by Sunni-Shia sectarian divides but by a reemergent [[Arab identity]] in the region.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lynch |first1=Mark |author-link=Marc Lynch |title=The Arab Uprisings Explained: New Contentious Politics in the Middle East |date=2019 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0231158855 |page=119}}</ref> [[Najla Said]] has explored her lifelong experience with Arab identity politics in her book ''Looking for Palestine''.<ref>{{cite news |date=28 July 2013 |title=Najla Said: "My Arab-American story is not typical in any way" |url=https://www.salon.com/2013/07/28/najla_said_my_arab_american_story_is_not_typical_in_any_way/ |work=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]}}</ref>

=== Asian-American identity politics ===
{{See also|Pan-Asianism|Asian American activism|Asian American movement|Asian Americans}}

In the political realm of the United States, according to Jane Junn and Natalie Masuoka, the possibilities which exist for an Asian American vote are built upon the assumption that those Americans who are broadly categorized as Asians share a sense of racial identity, and this [[Group consciousness (political science)|group consciousness]] has political consequences. However, the belief in the existence of a monolithic Asian American bloc has been challenged because populations are diverse in terms of national origin and language—no one group is predominant—and scholars suggest that these many diverse groups favor groups which share their distinctive national origin over any belief in the existence of a [[Pan-Asianism|pan-ethnic racial identity]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Junn |first1=Jane |last2=Masuoka |first2=Natalie |date=2008 |title=Asian American Identity: Shared Racial Status and Political Context |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20446825 |journal=Perspectives on Politics |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=729–740 |doi=10.1017/S1537592708081887 |issn=1537-5927 |jstor=20446825 |s2cid=144081361|url-access=subscription }}</ref> According to the 2000 Census, more than six national origin groups are classified collectively as Asian American, and these include: Chinese (23%), Filipino (18%), Asian Indian (17%), Vietnamese (11%), Korean (11%), and Japanese (8%), along with an "other Asian" category (12%). In addition, the definitions which are applied to racial categories in the United States are uniquely American constructs that Asian American immigrants may not adhere to upon entry to the United States.

Junn and Masuoka find that in comparison to blacks, the Asian American identity is more latent, and racial group consciousness is more susceptible to the surrounding context.

=== Black and Black feminist identity politics ===
{{See also|Black nationalism|Black power|Black feminism|Combahee River Collective|Black women in American politics}}

Black feminist identity politics are the identity-based politics derived from the lived experiences of struggles and oppression faced by Black women.

In 1977, the [[Combahee River Collective]] (CRC) argued that Black women struggled with facing their oppression due to the sexism present within the [[Civil rights movement|Civil Rights Movement]] and the racism present within [[second-wave feminism]]. The CRC coined the term "identity politics", and in their opinion, naming the unique struggle and oppression Black women faced, aided Black women in the U.S. within radical movements and at large. The term "identity politics", in the opinion of those within the CRC, gave Black women a tool, from which they could use to confront the oppression they were facing. The CRC also claimed to expand upon the prior feminist adage that "the personal is political", pointing to their own consciousness-raising sessions, centering of Black speech, and communal sharing of experiences of oppression as practices that expanded the phrase's scope. As mentioned earlier K. Crenshaw, claimed that the oppression of Black women is illustrated in two different directions: race and sex.

In 1988, Deborah K. King coined the term [[multiple jeopardy]], theory that expands on how factors of oppression are all interconnected. King suggested that the identities of gender, class, and race each have an individual prejudicial connotation, which has an incremental effect on the inequity of which one experiences.

In 1991, Nancie Caraway explained from a white feminist perspective that the politics of Black women had to be comprehended by broader feminist movements in the understanding that the different forms of oppression that Black women face (via race and gender) are interconnected, presenting a compound of oppression ([[Intersectionality]]).
[[File:Black lives matter in charlotte.jpg|thumb|A "Black Lives Matter" mural being painted in Charlotte]]
A contemporary example of Black identity politics is #[[Black Lives Matter|BlackLivesMatter]] which began with a hashtag. In 2013, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi created the hashtag in response to the acquittal of [[George Zimmerman trial|George Zimmerman]], the man who killed [[Trayvon Martin]] in 2012.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter first appears, sparking a movement {{!}} July 13, 2013 |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/blacklivesmatter-hashtag-first-appears-facebook-sparking-a-movement |access-date=2024-03-15 |website=HISTORY |date=10 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref>  [[Killing of Michael Brown|Michael Brown]] and [[Killing of Eric Garner|Eric Garner]] were killed by police in 2014, which propelled the #[[Black Lives Matter|BlackLivesMatter]] movement forward, first nationally, and then globally.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Henry |first=Carmel |title=A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States |url=https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/BLM |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=library.law.howard.edu |language=en}}</ref> The intention of #[[Black Lives Matter|BlackLivesMatter]] was to create more widespread awareness of the way law enforcement engages with the black community and individuals, including claims of excessive force and issues with accountability within law enforcement agencies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Scholarly Articles on Black Lives Matter: History & More |url=https://www.gale.com/open-access/black-lives-matter |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=www.gale.com |language=en}}</ref> The hashtag and proceeding movement garnered a lot of attention from all sides of the political sphere. A counter movement formed the hashtag, #[[All Lives Matter|AllLivesMatter]], in response to #[[Black Lives Matter|BlackLivesMatter]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Black Lives Matter (BLM) |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0016241/ |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref>

=== White identity politics ===
{{See also|White identity|White nationalism|White supremacy|White defensiveness|White backlash|Identitarian movement}}

In 1998, political scientists [[Jeffrey Kaplan (academic)|Jeffrey Kaplan]] and Leonard Weinberg predicted that, by the late 20th-century, a "Euro-American radical right" would promote a trans-national [[White people|white]] identity politics, which would invoke populist grievance narratives and encourage hostility against non-white peoples and [[multiculturalism]]. In the United States, mainstream news has identified [[Donald Trump]]'s presidency as a signal of increasing and widespread utilization of white identity politics within the Republican Party and political landscape. Journalists [[Michael Scherer (journalist)|Michael Scherer]] and [[David Smith (journalist)|David Smith]] have reported on its development since the mid-2010s.

[[Ron Brownstein]] believed that President Trump uses "White Identity Politics" to bolster his base and that this would ultimately limit his ability to reach out to non-[[White American]] voters for the [[2020 United States presidential election]]. A four-year [[Reuters]] and [[Ipsos]] analysis concurred that "Trump's brand of white identity politics may be less effective in the 2020 election campaign." Alternatively, examining the same poll, David Smith has written that "Trump's embrace of white identity politics may work to his advantage" in 2020. During the [[2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries|Democratic primaries]], presidential candidate [[Pete Buttigieg]] publicly warned that the president and his administration were using white identity politics, which he said was the most divisive form of identity politics. Columnist [[Reihan Salam]] writes that he is not convinced that Trump uses "white identity politics" given the fact that he still has significant support from liberal and moderate Republicans—who are more favorable toward immigration and the legalization of undocumented immigrants—but believes that it could become a bigger issue as whites become a minority and assert their rights like other minority groups. Salam also states that an increase in "white identity" politics is far from certain given the very high rates of [[Interracial marriage in the United States|intermarriage]] and the historical example of the once Anglo-Protestant cultural majority embracing a more inclusive white cultural majority which included Jews, Italians, Poles, Arabs, and Irish.<sup>[''[[Wikipedia:Neutral point of view#Due and undue weight|undue weight?]]  – [[Talk:Identity politics#undue|discuss]]'']</sup>
[[File:George Floyd protests in Columbus, 2020-07-18 (9466).jpg|thumb|Proud Boys]]
A contemporary example of "White identity politics" is the right-wing group [[Proud Boys]]. [[Proud Boys]] was formed by [[Gavin McInnes]] in 2016. Members are males who identify as right-wing conservatives. They take part in political protests with the most infamous being [[January 6 United States Capitol attack|January 6, 2021]], at the U.S. Capitol, which became violent and led to the arrest of their leader, [[Enrique Tarrio|Henry "Enrique" Tarrio]] and many others.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-05 |title=Office of Public Affairs {{!}} Proud Boys Leader Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison for Seditious Conspiracy and Other Charges Related to U.S. Capitol Breach {{!}} United States Department of Justice |url=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/proud-boys-leader-sentenced-22-years-prison-seditious-conspiracy-and-other-charges-related |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=www.justice.gov |language=en}}</ref> [[Proud Boys]] identify as supporters of [[Donald Trump]] for President and are outspoken supporters of Americans having unfettered access to firearms by way of the 2nd amendment of the US constitution, having expressed the belief that gun law reform is a "sinister authoritarian plot" to disarm law abiding citizens.<ref>{{Cite web |title=More Than Brawlers: The Proud Boys and Armed Extremism |url=https://everytownresearch.org/report/more-than-brawlers-the-proud-boys-and-armed-extremism/ |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=Everytown Research & Policy |language=en-us}}</ref> According to an article published by Southern Poverty Law Group, [[Proud Boys]] members are regularly affiliated with white nationalist extremists and are known for sharing white nationalist content across social media platforms.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Proud Boys |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/proud-boys |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |language=en}}</ref>
[[File:All Lives Matter (22780876528).jpg|thumb|#AllLivesMatter]]
Another contemporary example is the hashtag movement #[[All Lives Matter|AllLivesMatter]]. #[[All Lives Matter|AllLivesMatter]] began as a counter narrative to #[[Black Lives Matter|BlackLivesMatter]]. People who identify with this countermovement use this hashtag to represent what they call "anti-identity" identity politics, which is supposed to symbolize a movement against racial identities, but they've been criticized as being a white nationalist movement.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Paul |first=Joshua |date=2019-08-18 |title='Not Black and White, but Black and Red': Anti-identity identity politics and #AllLivesMatter |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1468796818791661 |journal=Ethnicities |language=en |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=3–19 |doi=10.1177/1468796818791661 |issn=1468-7968}}</ref> Created, adopted and circulated beginning in 2016, #[[White Lives Matter|WhiteLivesMatter]] exalted themselves as an anti-racist movement, while identifying #[[Black Lives Matter|BlackLivesMatter]] as the opposite.<ref name=":0" />

Columnist [[Ross Douthat]] has argued that white identity politics have been important to American politics since the [[Richard Nixon]]-era of the Republican Party. Historian [[Nell Irvin Painter]] has analyzed [[Eric Kaufmann]]'s thesis that the phenomenon of white identity politics is caused by immigration-derived [[racial diversity]], which reduces the white majority, and an "anti-majority adversary culture". Writing in ''[[Vox Media|Vox]]'', political commentator [[Ezra Klein]] believes that demographic change has fueled the emergence of white identity politics.

[[Viet Thanh Nguyen]] says that "to have no identity at all is the privilege of whiteness, which is the identity that pretends not to have an identity, that denies how it is tied to capitalism, to race, and to war".

=== Hispanic/Latino identity politics ===
{{See also|Hispanic and Latino Americans in politics}}

According to [[Leonie Huddy]], [[Lilliana Mason]], and [[S. Nechama Horwitz]], the majority of Latinos in the United States identity with the Democratic Party.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Huddy |first1=Leonie |last2=Mason |first2=Lilliana |last3=Horwitz |first3=S. Nechama |date=2016 |title=Political Identity Convergence: On Being Latino, Becoming a Democrat, and Getting Active |journal=RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=205–228 |doi=10.7758/rsf.2016.2.3.11 |issn=2377-8253 |jstor=10.7758/rsf.2016.2.3.11 |s2cid=59026229 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Latinos' Democratic proclivities can be explained by: ideological policy preferences and an expressive identity based on the defense of Latino identity and status, with a strong support for the latter explanation hinged on an analysis of the 2012 Latino Immigrant National Election Study and American National Election Study focused on Latino immigrants and citizens respectively. When perceiving pervasive discrimination against Latinos and animosity from the Republican party, a strong partisanship preference further intensified, and in return, increased Latino political campaign engagement.

=== Indian politics ===

In India, caste, religion, tribe, ethnicity play a role in electoral politics, government jobs and [[affirmative actions]], development projects.<ref>India's New Economic Policy: A Critical Analysis, p. 41, Waquar Ahmed, Amitabh Kundu, Richard Peet, Routledge</ref>

=== Māori identity politics ===
{{See also|Māori identity|Māori nationalism}}

Due to somewhat competing tribe-based versus pan-Māori concepts, there is both an internal and external utilization of Māori identity politics in [[New Zealand]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=Roger Maaka |title=The Politics of Indigeneity: Challenging the State in Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand |author2=Augie Fleras |date=2005 |publisher=[[Otago University Press]] |isbn=978-1877276538 |page=67 |quote=The tensions created by the intersection of tribe as identity, versus tribe as organisation, are central to Maori identity politics.}}</ref> Projected outwards, Māori identity politics has been a disrupting force in the [[politics of New Zealand]] and post-colonial conceptions of nationhood.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Tatiana Tökölyová |title=Journal of Nationalism, Memory & Language Politics |date=2005 |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |edition=Volume 11, Edition 1 |location=[[University of International and Public Relations Prague]] |page=67 |chapter=Transnationalism in the Pacific Region as a Concept of State Identity |quote=Maori identity politics have disrupted the colonially-inspired constructions of the New Zealand nation and state from a base of indigeneity.}}</ref> Its development has also been explored as causing parallel ethnic identity developments in non-Māori populations.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Hal B. Levine |title=Constructing collective identity: a comparative analysis of New Zealand Jews, Maori, and urban Papua New Guineans |date=1997 |publisher=[[Peter Lang (publisher)|Peter Lang]] |isbn=978-3631319444 |page=11 |quote=The material on biculturalism particularly shows how ethnicity interdigitates with identity politics for Maori and stimulates parallel developments among non-Maori New Zealanders.}}</ref> Academic [[Alison Jones]], in her co-written ''Tuai: A Traveller in Two Worlds'', suggests that a form of Māori identity politics, directly oppositional to [[Pākehā]] (white New Zealanders), has helped provide a "basis for internal collaboration and a politics of strength".<ref>{{cite book |title=Critical Conversations in Kaupapa Maori |date=2005 |publisher=[[Huia Publishers]] |isbn=978-1775503286 |editor1=Te Kawehau Hoskins |quote=As Jones and Jenkins (2008) point out, an oppositional Māori identity politics has been the 'basis for internal collaboration and a politics of strength' (p.475). |editor2=Alison Jones}}</ref>

A 2009, [[Ministry of Social Development (New Zealand)|Ministry of Social Development]] journal identified Māori identity politics, and societal reactions to it, as the most prominent factor behind significant changes in self-identification from the 2006 New Zealand census.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kukutai |first1=Tahu |author-link=Tahu Kukutai |last2=Didham |first2=Robert |date=2009 |title=In Search of Ethnic New Zealanders: National Naming in the 2006 Census |url=https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj36/36-in-search-of-ethnic-new-zealanders.html |journal=Social Policy Journal of New Zealand |publisher=[[Ministry of Social Development (New Zealand)]] |access-date=May 6, 2021 |quote=Māori identity politics and Treaty settlements, as well as their reactions – the latter included challenges to historical settlements and so-called "race-based" funding.}}</ref>

==By religion==
=== Muslim identity politics ===
{{See also|The Muslim Vote}}
Since the 1970s, the interaction of religion and politics has been associated with the rise of Islamist movements in the Middle East. Salwa Ismail posits that the Muslim identity is related to social dimensions such as gender, class, and lifestyles ([[Intersectionality]]), thus, different Muslims occupy different social positions in relation to the processes of globalization. Not all uniformly engage in the construction of Muslim identity, and they do not all apply to a monolithic Muslim identity.

The construction of British Muslim identity politics is marked with [[Islamophobia]]; Jonathan Brit suggests that political hostility toward the Muslim "other" and the reification of an overarching identity that obscures and denies cross-cutting collective identities or existential individuality are charges made against an assertive Muslim identity politics in Britain.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hopkins |first=Peter |title=Muslims in Britain: Race, Place and Identities |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2009 |pages=210–211 |language=English}}</ref> In addition, because Muslim identity politics is seen as internally/externally divisive and therefore counterproductive, as well as the result of manipulation by religious conservatives and local/national politicians, the progressive policies of the anti-racist left have been outflanked. Brit sees the segmentation that divided British Muslims amongst themselves and with the anti-racist alliance in Britain as a consequence of patriarchal, conservative mosque-centered leadership.

A ''[[Le Monde]]''/[[IFOP]] poll in January 2011 conducted in France and Germany found that a majority felt Muslims are "scattered improperly"; an analyst for ''IFOP'' said the results indicated something "beyond linking immigration with security or immigration with unemployment, to linking Islam with a threat to identity".<ref>{{cite news |date=6 January 2011 |title=European Poll: An Islamic Threat? |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/01/201116112228783789.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014114808/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/01/201116112228783789.html |archive-date=14 October 2012 |access-date=19 October 2012 |work=[[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al Jazeera]] |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

=== Christian identity politics ===
{{Further|Christian democracy}}

== By gender ==
{{Further|Gender essentialism}}
Gender identity politics is an approach that views politics, both in practice and as an academic discipline, as having a gendered nature and that gender is an identity that influences how people think.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199751457.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199751457-e-34 | doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199751457.013.0034 | chapter=Introduction: Gender and Politics: A Gendered World, a Gendered Discipline | title=The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Politics | date=2013 | last1=Celis | first1=Karen | last2=Kantola | first2=Johanna | last3=Waylen | first3=Georgina | last4=Weldon | first4=S. Laurel | pages=1–26 | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19-975145-7 }}</ref> Politics has become increasingly gender political as formal structures and informal 'rules of the game' have become gendered. How institutions affect men and women differently are starting to be analysed in more depth as gender will affect institutional innovation.<ref>[Mona L. Krook, Fiona Mckay] [https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uea/reader.action?docID=665680] [''Gender, Politics and Institutions''], 2011, Palgrave Macmillan</ref>

=== Women's identity politics ===
{{Further|Women in government}}
A key element of studying electoral behavior in all democracies is [[Partisanship|political partisanship]]. In 1996, Eric Plutzer and John F. Zipp examined the election of 1992 election, also commonly referred to as "[[Year of the Woman]]", where a then-record- breaking fourteen women ran for governor or U.S. senator, four of whom were successfully elected into office. In analyzing the possibility that male and female voters react differently to the opportunity to cast a vote for a woman, the study provided lent support to the idea that women tend to vote for women and men tend to vote against them.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Plutzer |first1=Eric |last2=Zipp |first2=John F. |date=1996 |title=Identity Politics, Partisanship, and Voting for Women Candidates |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/297738 |journal=Public Opinion Quarterly |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=30 |doi=10.1086/297738 |issn=0033-362X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> For example, among Republican voters in California, [[Barbara Boxer]] ran 10 points behind [[Bill Clinton]] among men and about even among women, while [[Dianne Feinstein]] ran about 6 points among men but 11 points ahead among women. This gender effect was further amplified for Democratic female candidates who were rated as feminist. These results demonstrate that gender identity has and can function as a cue for voting behavior.

Scholars of social movements and democratic theorists disagree on whether identity politics weaken women's social movements and undermine their influence on public policy or have reverse effects. S. Laurel Weldon argues that when marginalized groups organize around an intersectional social location, knowledge about the social group is generated, feelings of affiliation between group members are strengthened, and the movement's agenda becomes more representative. Specifically for the United States, Weldon suggests that organizing women by race strengthens these movements and improves government responsiveness to both violence against women of color and women in general.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weldon |first=S. Laurel |date=2006 |title=Women's Movements, Identity Politics, and Policy Impacts: A Study of Policies on Violence against Women in the 50 United States |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4148079 |journal=Political Research Quarterly |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=111–122 |doi=10.1177/106591290605900110 |issn=1065-9129 |jstor=4148079 |s2cid=154528767|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Masculinism ===
{{Further|Masculinism}}

==By sexual orientation==
=== LGBT ===
{{See also|LGBT social movements|Anti-LGBT rhetoric|Violence against LGBT people|Queer nationalism|Political lesbianism|Bisexual politics}}
[[File:Frank_Kameny_(3649609801).jpg|alt=A man in a blue shirt wearing glasses and a flower garland waves to a crowd.|thumb|[[Frank Kameny]]]]
By the early-1960s, [[lesbian]], [[gay]], [[Bisexuality|bisexual]], and [[transgender]] people in the United States were forming more visible communities, and this was reflected in the political strategies of American [[homophile]] groups. [[Frank Kameny]], an American [[astronomer]] and [[gay rights]] activist, had co-founded the [[Mattachine Society of Washington]] in 1961. While the society did not take much political activism to the streets at first, Kameny and several members attended the 1963 [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom|March on Washington]], where having seen the methods used by Black [[Civil and political rights|civil rights activists]], they then applied them to the [[homophile movement]]. Kameny had also been inspired by the black power movements slogan "[[Black is beautiful|Black is Beautiful]]", coining his own term "Gay is Good".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Yurcaba |first1=Jo |date=28 February 2021 |title=Different fight, 'same goal': How the Black freedom movement inspired early gay activists |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/different-fight-same-goal-how-black-freedom-movement-inspired-early-n1259072 |access-date=14 October 2022}}</ref>

The [[gay liberation]] movement of the late-1960s urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical [[direct action]], and to counter societal shame with [[gay pride]].<ref name="HoffmanIntro">{{cite book |last=Hoffman |first=Amy |title=An Army of Ex-Lovers: My life at the Gay Community News |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1558496217 |pages=xi–xiii}}</ref> In the [[feminism|feminist]] spirit of the personal being political, the most basic form of activism was an emphasis on [[coming out]] to family, friends and colleagues, and living life as an openly lesbian or gay person.<ref name="HoffmanIntro" />

By the mid-1970s, an "ethnic model of identity" had surpassed the popularity of both the homophile movement and gay liberation.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Seidman |first=Steven |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9780511557910/type/book |title=Difference Troubles: Queering Social Theory and Sexual Politics |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-521-59043-3 |edition= |chapter=From gay ethnicity to queer politics: the renewal of gay radicalism in the United States |pages=185–197 |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511557910.011}}</ref> Proponents operated through a [[sexual minority]] framework and advocated either [[reformism]] or [[separatism]] (notably [[lesbian separatism]]).<ref name=":02" />

While the 1970s were the peak of "gay liberation" in New York City and other urban areas in the United States, "gay liberation" was the term still used instead of "gay pride" in more oppressive areas into the mid-1980s, with some organizations opting for the more inclusive "lesbian and gay liberation".<ref name="HoffmanIntro" /><ref name="Hoffman2007">{{cite book |last=Hoffman |first=Amy |title=An Army of Ex-Lovers: My life at the Gay Community News |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1558496217}}</ref> Women and transgender activists had lobbied for more inclusive names from the beginning of the movement, but the [[initialism]] [[LGBT]], or "[[queer]]" as a counterculture shorthand for LGBT, did not gain much acceptance as an umbrella term until much later in the 1980s, and in some areas not until the '90s or even '00s.<ref name="HoffmanIntro" /><ref name="Hoffman2007" /><ref name="Hollibaugh">{{cite web |author1=phoenix |date=29 June 2012 |title=Gay Rights Are Not Queer Liberation |url=http://www.autostraddle.com/gay-rights-are-not-queer-liberation-the-nation-interviews-amber-hollibaugh-140431/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402122449/http://www.autostraddle.com/gay-rights-are-not-queer-liberation-the-nation-interviews-amber-hollibaugh-140431/ |archive-date=2 April 2015 |access-date=1 March 2015 |website=autostraddle.com |df=dmy-all}}</ref> During this period in the United States, identity politics were largely seen in these communities in the definitions espoused by writers such as self-identified, "black, dyke, feminist, poet, mother" [[Audre Lorde]]'s [[Audre Lorde#Personal identity|view]], that [[lived experience]] matters, defines us, and is the only thing that grants authority to speak on these topics; that, "If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive."<ref name="Zami">{{Cite book |last=Lorde |first=Audre |title=Zami: A New Spelling of My Name |title-link=Zami: A New Spelling of My Name |publisher=Crossing Press |year=1982 |isbn=978-0-89594-123-7 |location=New York}}</ref><ref name="Kemp">Kemp, Yakini B. (2004). "Writing Power: Identity Complexities and the Exotic Erotic in Audre Lorde's writing". ''Studies in the Literary Imagination''. '''37''': 22–36.</ref><ref name="Leonard">Leonard, Keith D. (28 September 2012). [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/486572 ""Which Me Will Survive": Rethinking Identity, Reclaiming Audre Lorde"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220052903/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/486572|date=20 December 2016}}. ''Callaloo''. '''35''' (3): 758–77. {{doi|10.1353/cal.2012.0100}}. {{ISSN|1080-6512}}.</ref>

=== Straight ===
{{Further|Straight pride}}

==Debates and criticism==
The term ''identity politics'' has been applied retroactively to varying movements that long predate its coinage. Historian [[Arthur Schlesinger Jr.]] discussed identity politics extensively in his 1991 book ''[[The Disuniting of America]]''. Schlesinger, a strong supporter of liberal conceptions of [[civil rights]], argues that a [[liberal democracy]] requires a common basis for culture and society to function. Rather than seeing civil society as already fractured along lines of power and powerlessness (according to race, ethnicity, sexuality, etc.), Schlesinger suggests that basing politics on group marginalization is itself what fractures the civil polity, and that identity politics therefore works against creating real opportunities for ending marginalization. Schlesinger believes that "movements for civil rights should aim toward full acceptance and integration of marginalized groups into the mainstream culture, rather than … perpetuating that marginalization through affirmations of difference."<ref>M.A. Chaudhary & Gautam Chaudhary, Global Encyclopaedia of Political Geography, New Delhi, 2009, {{ISBN|978-81-8220-233-7}}, p. 112</ref>

Similarly in the United Kingdom, author [[Owen Jones (writer)|Owen Jones]] argues that identity politics often marginalize the [[working class]], saying:
{{blockquote|In the 1950s and 1960s, left-wing intellectuals who were both inspired and informed by a powerful labour movement wrote hundreds of books and articles on working-class issues. Such work would help shape the views of politicians at the very top of the Labour Party. Today, progressive intellectuals are far more interested in issues of identity. ... Of course, the struggles for the emancipation of women, gays, and ethnic minorities are exceptionally important causes. New Labour has co-opted them, passing genuinely progressive legislation on gay equality and women's rights, for example. But it is an agenda that has happily co-existed with the sidelining of the working class in politics, allowing New Labour to protect its radical flank while pressing ahead with Thatcherite policies.|Owen Jones|''[[Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class]]''<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Owen|title=Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class|url=https://archive.org/details/chavsdemonizatio00jone_371|url-access=limited|date=2012|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1-84467-864-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/chavsdemonizatio00jone_371/page/n142 255]|edition=updated}}</ref>{{undue weight inline|Why is Jones noteworthy?|date=November 2021}}}}
Some supporters of identity politics take stances based on [[Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak]]'s work (namely, "Can the Subaltern Speak?") and have described some forms of identity politics as [[strategic essentialism]], a form which has sought to work with [[Hegemony|hegemonic]] discourses to reform the understanding of "universal" goals.<ref name="Spivak">{{Cite book |last=Spivak |first=Gayatri Chakrovotry |title=Other Asias |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2008 |isbn=978-1405102070 |location=Malden, M.A. |page=[https://archive.org/details/otherasias0000spiv/page/260/mode/2up?q=%22the+idea+of+strategic+essentialism%22 260] |url=https://archive.org/details/otherasias0000spiv|access-date=2025-12-26|url-access=limited|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref><ref name="Abraham">{{Cite journal |last=Abraham |first=Susan |year=2009 |title=Strategic Essentialism in Nationalist Discourses: Sketching a Feminist Agenda in the Study of Religion |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/266799 |url-status=live |journal=Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=156–161 |doi=10.2979/fsr.2009.25.1.156 |s2cid=143105193 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018190808/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/266799 |archive-date=18 October 2017 |access-date=17 December 2017 |via=Project Muse |df=dmy-all|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Ritze">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=essentialism and constructionism |encyclopedia=The Concise Encyclopedia of Sociology |year=2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |url=https://archive.org/details/the-concise-encyclopedia-of-sociology/page/192/mode/2up |access-date=2025-12-26 |last=Plummer |first=Ken |author-link=Ken Plummer (sociologist) |editor-last=Ritzer |editor-first=George |editor-link=George Ritzer |editor-last2=Ryan |editor-first2 = J. Michael |publication-place=Malden, MA |page=193 |isbn=978-1-4051-8352-9}}</ref> Others point out the erroneous logic and the ultimate dangers of reproducing strong identitarian divisions inherent in essentialism.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kurzwelly |first=J. |author2=Rapport, N. |author3=Spiegel, A. D. |year=2020 |title=Encountering, explaining and refuting essentialism |journal=Anthropology Southern Africa |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=65–81 |doi=10.1080/23323256.2020.1780141 |s2cid=221063562 |hdl-access=free |hdl=10023/24669}}</ref> For queer theorist [[Paul B. Preciado]], "movements for the emancipation of subaltern minorities (racial, gender and sexual, etc.) ended up crystallizing into identity politics. Without having dismantled the regimes of racial, sexual or gender oppression, identity politics have ended up renaturalizing and even intensifying the differences."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Preciado |first=Paul B. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/1354329097 |title=Dysphoria mundi: el sonido del mundo derrumbándose |date=2022 |publisher=Editorial Anagrama |isbn=978-84-339-9948-1 |edition= |series= |location=Barcelona |language=en |chapter=Dysphoria mundi |oclc=1354329097}}</ref>

[[Anies Baswedan]], who has been doing identity politics in [[Indonesia]] since 2017, referred to it as unavoidable because every candidate competing in a political contest will always have an identity as their nature.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Indonesia |first=C. N. N. |title=Anies Baswedan Beber Alasan Politik Identitas Tak Terhindarkan |url=https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20230319071111-617-926841/anies-baswedan-beber-alasan-politik-identitas-tak-terhindarkan |access-date=2023-11-14 |website=nasional |language=id-ID}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Anies' identity politics will cost Prabowo his third presidential bid |url=https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2023/04/29/anies-identity-politics-will-cost-prabowo-his-third-presidential-bid.html |access-date=2023-11-14 |website=The Jakarta Post |language=en}}</ref> During his 2024 Presidential Candidate, he added that identity politics is a form of support and conveying the aspirations of society that should not be met with concern.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nelfira |first=Winda |date=2023-11-24 |title=Anies Baswedan Tak Khawatir Dilabeli Politik Identitas |url=https://www.liputan6.com/pemilu/read/5464018/anies-baswedan-tak-khawatir-dilabeli-politik-identitas |access-date=2023-11-28 |website=liputan6.com |language=id}}</ref>

=== "Divide and rule" critique ===
Critics argue that groups based on a particular shared identity (e.g. race, or gender identity) can divert energy and attention from more fundamental issues, similar to the history of [[divide and rule]] strategies.

In response to the formulations of the [[Combahee River Collective]] that necessitated the organization of women around intersectional identities to bring about broader social change, socialist and radical feminists insisted that, instead, activism would require support for addressing more "basic" forms of oppression.<ref name="Ackelsberg 1996 87–100" /> Other feminists also mirrored this sentiment, implying that a politics of issues should supersede a politics of identity. Tarrow also asserts that identity politics can produce insular, sectarian, and divisive movements incapable of expanding membership, broadening appeals, and negotiating with prospective allies.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tarrow|first=Sidney|title=Power in Movement|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1998|location=Cambridge, MA|pages=119|language=English}}</ref> In other words, separate organization undermines movement identity, distracts activists from important issues, and prevents the creation of a common agenda.

=== Classical liberal critique ===
According to [[Jonathan Haidt]], those who criticize identity politics from the right see it as inherently [[Collectivism and individualism|collectivist]] and [[Prejudice|prejudicial]], in contradiction to the ideals of [[classical liberalism]].<ref>{{Cite web |last1= Haidt|first1=Jonathan | authorlink1= Jonathan Haidt |date=2017-12-17 |title=The Age of Outrage |url=https://www.city-journal.org/html/age-outrage-15608.html |access-date=2021-03-08 |website=[[City Journal]] |publisher=[[Manhattan Institute for Policy Research]]|language=en}}</ref>

[[Jordan Peterson]] has criticized identity politics and argues that it is practiced on both sides of the political divide: "[t]he [[Left-wing politics|left]] plays them on behalf of the [[Oppression|oppressed]], let's say, and the [[Right-wing politics|right]] tends to play them on behalf of [[nationalism]] and [[Pride#Ethnic|ethnic pride]]". He considers both equally dangerous, saying that what should be emphasized, instead, is individual focus and personal responsibility.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Luscombe |first=Belinda |author-link=Belinda Luscombe |date=7 March 2018 |title=Jordan Peterson talks gun control, angry men and why so few women lead companies |url=https://time.com/5175974/jordan-peterson-12-rules-book-interview/ |url-status=live |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180519182714/http://time.com/5175974/jordan-peterson-12-rules-book-interview/ |archive-date=19 May 2018 |access-date=22 May 2018}}</ref>

=== Socialist critique ===
Those who criticize identity politics from the left, such as [[Marxism|Marxists]] and [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninists]], see identity politics as a version of [[bourgeois nationalism]], i.e. as a [[Divide and rule|divide and conquer]] [[strategy]] by the [[ruling class]]es to divide people by [[nationality]], [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]], [[ethnicity]], [[religion]], etc. so as to [[Distraction|distract]] the [[working class]] from uniting for the purpose of [[Class conflict|class struggle]] and [[proletarian revolution]].<ref name="Hobsbawm-1996" /><ref name="KišičekŽagar2013"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Ronald Niezen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8W6xPPdYLcC&pg=PA129|title=A World Beyond Difference: Cultural Identity in the Age of Globalization|date=15 April 2008|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4051-3710-2|page=129|quote=The famous rallying cry from The Communist Manifesto, "workers of the world unite!" was meant only to hasten the [...]}}</ref><ref name="Parenti1" />

Sociologist [[Charles Derber]] asserts that the American left is "largely an identity-politics party" and that it "offers no broad critique of the political economy of capitalism. It focuses on reforms for blacks and women and so forth. But it doesn't offer a contextual analysis within capitalism." Both he and [[David North (socialist)|David North]] of the [[Socialist Equality Party (United States)|Socialist Equality Party]] posit that these fragmented and isolated identity movements which permeate the left have allowed for a far-right resurgence.<ref name="HedgesTD2">{{cite news |last=Hedges |first=Chris |author-link=Chris Hedges |date=5 February 2018 |title=The Bankruptcy of the American Left |work=Truthdig |url=https://www.truthdig.com/articles/bankruptcy-american-left/ |url-status=dead |access-date=9 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209135923/https://www.truthdig.com/articles/bankruptcy-american-left/ |archive-date=9 February 2018 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> [[Cornel West]] asserted that discourse on racial, gender and sexual orientation identity was "crucial" and "indispensable", but emphasized that it "must be connected to a moral integrity and deep political solidarity that hones in on a financialized form of predatory capitalism. A capitalism that is killing the planet, poor people, working people here and abroad."<ref>{{cite news |date=December 3, 2020 |title=Cornel West: "Bernie Was Crushed by Neoliberalism" |url=https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/cornel-west-interview-bernie-black-lives-matter |work=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]] |access-date=December 7, 2020}}</ref> Historian [[Gary Gerstle]] writes that identity politics and multiculturalism thrived in the [[neoliberal]] era precisely because these movements did not threaten [[capital accumulation]], and over the same period "pressure on capitalist elites and their supporters to compromise with the working class was vanishing." The ideological space to oppose capitalism shrank with the [[fall of communism]], forcing the left to "redefine their radicalism in alternative terms".<ref>{{cite book |last=Gerstle|first=Gary|author-link=Gary Gerstle|date=2022 |title=The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-neoliberal-order-9780197519646?cc=us&lang=en&|location= |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|page=149|isbn=978-0197519646}}</ref>

Critiques of identity politics have also been expressed by writers such as [[Eric Hobsbawm]],<ref name="Hobsbawm-1996">{{cite web |last=Hobsbawm |first=Eric |date=2 May 1996 |url=http://banmarchive.org.uk/articles/1996%20annual%20lecture.htm |title=Identity Politics and the Left |website=Institute of Education |access-date=April 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170918013136/http://banmarchive.org.uk/articles/1996%20annual%20lecture.htm |archive-date=18 September 2017}}</ref> [[Todd Gitlin]],<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript235.html PBS.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804215455/http://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript235.html |date=4 August 2017 }}, Thinktank transcript 235</ref> [[Adolph Reed]],<ref>Ben Norton, June 29, 2015 "Adolph Reed: Identity Politics Is Neoliberalism" https://bennorton.com/adolph-reed-identity-politics-is-neoliberalism/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221018052043/https://bennorton.com/adolph-reed-identity-politics-is-neoliberalism/ |date=18 October 2022 }}</ref><ref>Hope Reese, JStor Daily, "Adolph Reed Jr.: The Perils of Race Reductionism" https://daily.jstor.org/adolph-reed-jr-the-perils-of-race-reductionism/</ref> [[Michael Tomasky]], [[Richard Rorty]], [[Michael Parenti]],<ref name="Parenti1">{{citation|last=Parenti|first=Michael|title=Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism|year=1997|publisher=[[City Lights Bookstore|City Lights Books]]|location=San Francisco|isbn=978-0872863293|page=151|author-link=Michael Parenti|quote="Seizing upon anything but class, U.S. leftists today have developed an array of identity groups centering around ethnic, gender, cultural, and life-style issues. These groups treat their respective grievances as something apart from class struggle, and have almost nothing to say about the increasingly harsh politico-economic ''class'' injustices perpetrated against us all."}}</ref> [[Jodi Dean]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Dean|first=Jodi|author-link=Jodi Dean|date=2012|title=The Communist Horizon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBghOq42S3YC&pg=PA53|publisher=Verso|page=53|isbn=978-1844679546}}</ref> [[Sean Wilentz]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=115&subsecID=172&contentID=2049|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116130524/http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=115&subsecID=172&contentID=2049 |archive-date=16 January 2010 |last=Sleeper |first=Jim |title=In Defense of Civic Culture |date=1 January 1993|publisher=[[Progressive Policy Institute]]. ppionline.org |access-date=4 September 2017}}</ref> [[Gabriel Rockhill]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://monthlyreview.org/2023/12/01/imperialist-propaganda-and-the-ideology-of-the-western-left-intelligentsia/|title=Imperialist Propaganda and the Ideology of the Western Left Intelligentsia: From Anticommunism and Identity Politics to Democratic Illusions and Fascism|last=Rockhill|first=Gabriel |date=December 1, 2023 |website=[[Monthly Review]] |publisher= |access-date=December 5, 2023 |quote=Identity politics, like the multiculturalism affiliated with it, is a contemporary manifestation of the culturalism and essentialism that have long characterized bourgeois ideology. The latter seeks to naturalize social and economic relations that are the consequence of the material history of capitalism.}}</ref> and philosopher [[Slavoj Žižek]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Slavoj|last=Žižek|author-link=Slavoj Žižek|title=Ein Plädoyer für die Intoleranz|year=2015|isbn=9783709201886|publisher= Passagen Verlag Ges.M.B.H |language=German}}</ref> Hobsbawm, as a Marxist, criticized nationalisms and the principle of national self-determination adopted in many countries after 1919, since in his view national governments are often merely an expression of a ruling class or power, and their proliferation was a source of the wars of the 20th century. Hence, Hobsbawm argues that identity politics, such as [[queer nationalism]], [[Islamism]], [[Cornish nationalism]] or [[Ulster loyalism]] are just other versions of [[bourgeois nationalism]]. The view that identity politics (rooted in challenging racism, sexism, and the like) obscures class inequality is widespread in the United States and other Western nations. This framing ignores how class-based politics are identity politics themselves, according to [[Jeff Sparrow]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/18/class-and-identity-politics-are-not-mutually-exclusive-the-left-should-use-this-to-its-benefit|title=Class and identity politics are not mutually exclusive. The left should use this to its benefit {{!}} Jeff Sparrow|last=Sparrow|first=Jeff|date=17 November 2016|website=the Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-07-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718030629/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/18/class-and-identity-politics-are-not-mutually-exclusive-the-left-should-use-this-to-its-benefit|archive-date=18 July 2018|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Marc James Léger has noted that the cross-class alliances that are proposed by identity movements have ideological affinity with not only nationalism but the political right and that moreover, the micro-political emphasis on difference and lifestyle associates identity politics with the petty-bourgeois concerns of the [[professional-managerial class]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Léger|first=Marc James|date=2022 |title=Bernie Bros Gone Woke: Class Identity, Neoliberalism |url=https://brill.com/display/title/61660?language=en|location= |publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004507128}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Léger|first=Marc James|date=2022 |title=Too Black to Fail: The Obama Portraits and the Politics of Post-Representation |url=https://www.redquillbooks.com/portfolio-posts/too-black-to-fail-the-obama-portraits-and-the-politics-of-post-representation|location= |publisher=Red Quill Books|isbn=9781926958361}}</ref>

Considering the effectiveness of identity politics for achieving social justice, Kurzwelly raised four main points of critique:<blockquote>[..] an argument for identity politics and strategic essentialism [could be], [f]or example, claims that because racism is real, and that people keep perceiving social race as real (despite scientific rejection of biological races), may justify using racial and other racialising categories to correct social injustices based upon them. Yet, there are several arguments against such a stance: (1) Social essentialism is inherently erroneous so seeking to address social injustices using essentialist thinking perpetuates that error and risks [[unforeseen consequence]]s (even if motivated by good intentions [...]). (2) Addressing injustices through using essentialist identity categories assumes that people are necessarily underprivileged primarily because of their identity. Even if, in specific contexts, experiences of oppression and exploitation statistically correlate with identity, using identity categories is an imprecise and indirect strategy for addressing their exploitation and oppression. Rather than using fixed identity categories as variables for social justice, one could take account of contextual relative positionality, or use processual variables, both of which would be more precise in assessing relative privilege and capability to seek justice and access rights. (3) Seeking to address injustices on the basis of identities sometimes forces people to adopt and perform an unwanted identity, and to comply with normative expectations about its contents. For example, [...] gender-specific legislation in Argentina forced gender-non-conforming persons to choose between seeking justice and expressing their identity. Similarly, a shift from justice based on fixed categories to justice based on processes might offer a solution. (4) Overall, using essentialist identities in struggles for justice and political change—the strategy of identity politics—stands in an uneasy tension with a politics that prioritises redistribution of means of production and seeks sustained change in economic relations [...].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kurzwelly |first=Jonatan |date=2022-10-25 |title=Bones and injustices: provenance research, restitutions and identity politics |journal=Dialectical Anthropology |volume=47 |pages=45–56 |language=en |doi=10.1007/s10624-022-09670-9 |s2cid=253144587 |issn=0304-4092|doi-access=free }}</ref></blockquote>

=== Intersectional critique ===
In her journal article ''Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics and Violence against Women of Color,'' [[Kimberlé Crenshaw]] treats identity politics as a process that brings people together based on a shared aspect of their identity. Crenshaw applauds identity politics for bringing African Americans (and other non-white people), gays and lesbians, and other oppressed groups together in community and progress.<ref name="Crenshaw-1991">{{Cite journal|last=Crenshaw|first=Kimberlé|author-link=Kimberlé Crenshaw|date=1 January 1991|title=Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color|jstor=1229039|journal=Stanford Law Review|volume=43|issue=6|pages=1241–99|doi=10.2307/1229039|citeseerx=10.1.1.695.5934|s2cid=24661090 }}</ref> But she critiques it because "it frequently conflates or ignores intragroup differences."<ref name="Crenshaw-1991" />&nbsp;Crenshaw argues that for Black women, at least two aspects of their identity are the subject of oppression: their race and their sex.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics|last=Crenshaw|first=Kimberlé|publisher=University of Chicago Legal Forum|year=1989|pages=139–68|url=https://philpapers.org/archive/CREDTI.pdf?source=post_page---------------------------}}</ref> Thus, although identity politics are useful, we must be aware of the role of&nbsp;[[intersectionality]]. Nira Yuval-Davis supports Crenshaw's critiques&nbsp;in ''Intersectionality and Feminist Politics''&nbsp;and explains that "Identities are individual and collective narratives that answer the question 'who am/are I/we?"&nbsp;<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Yuval-Davis|first=Nira|date=1 August 2006|title=Intersectionality and Feminist Politics|url=http://ejw.sagepub.com/content/13/3/193|journal=European Journal of Women's Studies|language=en|volume=13|issue=3|pages=193–209|doi=10.1177/1350506806065752|s2cid=145319810|issn=1350-5068|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103075104/http://ejw.sagepub.com/content/13/3/193|archive-date=3 November 2016|url-status=live|df=dmy-all|hdl=2262/52005|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

In ''Mapping the Margins'', Crenshaw illustrates her point using the&nbsp;[[Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination|Clarence Thomas]]/[[Anita Hill]] controversy. Anita Hill [[Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination#Anita Hill testimony|accused]] US Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment; Thomas would be the second African American judge on the Supreme Court. Crenshaw argues that Hill was then deemed anti-Black in the movement against racism, and although she came forward on the feminist issue of sexual harassment, she was excluded because when considering feminism, it is the narrative of white middle-class women that prevails.<ref name="Crenshaw-1991" /> Crenshaw concludes that acknowledging intersecting categories when groups unite on the basis of identity politics is better than ignoring categories altogether.<ref name="Crenshaw-1991"/>

=== Queer critique ===
In [[Postmodern philosophy|postmodernist]] analyses, [[Label (sociology)|labels]] are a form of regulation, and any activism based on them increases their regulatory power over subordinate groups.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Bernstein |first=Mary |date=2005 |title=Identity Politics |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29737711 |journal=Annual Review of Sociology |volume=31 |pages=47–74 |doi=10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100054 |jstor=29737711 |issn=0360-0572|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Consequently, "identity politics appears to be narrow, political, state-centered activism that fails to adequately address the cultural bases of power."<ref name=":12" /> This view responds to the emergence of queer politics in the late 1980s, exemplified by the group [[Queer Nation]]. Scholars have identified queer politics as the opposite of identity politics, aiming to unite diverse marginalized groups and transcend traditional categories.<ref name=":12" />

{{Blockquote|text=The [[foundationalist]] reasoning of identity politics tends to assume that an identity must first be in place in order for political interests to be elaborated and, subsequently, political action to be taken. My argument is that there need not be a "doer behind the deed," but that the "doer" is variably constructed in and through the deed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Butler |first1=Judith |title=Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=9780415389556 |pages=194–195}}</ref>|author=[[Judith Butler]]|title=''[[Gender Trouble]]''}}

Writers in the field of [[queer theory]] have at times argued that ''queer'', despite generations of specific use to describe a "non-heterosexual" sexual orientation,<ref name="oed2">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2014 |title=queer |encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> no longer needs to refer to any specific sexual orientation at all; that it is now only about "disrupting the mainstream", with author [[David M. Halperin]] arguing that straight people may now also self-identify as "queer".<ref name="Halperin2">{{cite book |author=Halperin, David M. |title=One Hundred Years of Homosexuality: And Other Essays on Greek Love |title-link=One Hundred Years of Homosexuality |publisher=Routledge |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-415-90097-3 |location=New York}}</ref> However, many LGBT people believe this concept of "[[queer heterosexuality]]" is an oxymoron and offensive form of [[cultural appropriation]] which not only robs gays and lesbians of their identities, but makes invisible and irrelevant the actual, lived experience of oppression that causes them to be marginalized in the first place.<ref name="appropriation2">{{cite news |last=Mortimer |first=Dora |date=9 February 2016 |title=Can Straight People Be Queer? – An increasing number of young celebrities are labeling themselves 'queer.' But what does this mean for the queer community? |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/can-straight-people-be-queer-435/ |website=[[Vice Media]]}}</ref><ref name="4-encylopedia2">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Queer Theory and the Social Construction of Sexuality |encyclopedia=Homosexuality |publisher=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/homosexuality/#QueTheSocConSex |access-date=15 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111209062102/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/homosexuality/#QueTheSocConSex |archive-date=9 December 2011 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all}}</ref> "It desexualizes identity, when the issue is precisely about a sexual identity."<ref name="Jagose2">[[Annamarie Jagose|Jagose, Annamarie]], 1996. ''Queer Theory: An Introduction''. New York: New York University Press.</ref>

Criticism of identity politics also appears in contemporary queer activism. The insurrectionary anarchist network [[Bash Back!]], for example, understood identity politics as being fundamentally reformist and based on a [[fallacy]] of coherent communities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eanelli |first=Tegan |title=Queer Ultraviolence: BASH BACK! Anthology |publisher=Ardent Press |year=2011 |isbn=9781620490426 |editor-last=Baroque |editor-first=Fray |chapter=Conclusion |editor-last2=Eanelli |editor-first2=Tegan}}</ref>

== Representation in modern democracies ==
{{see also|Political representation}}

One of the major challenges in providing quality representation within all modern democracies comes from the many different ways in conceptualizing representation. [[Hanna Fenichel Pitkin]], in her seminal study ''The Concept of Representation'',<ref name="Fenichel Pitkin-1967">{{Cite book |last=Fenichel Pitkin |first=Hanna |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/9780520340503 |title=The Concept of Representation |date=1967-12-31 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-34050-3 |doi=10.1525/9780520340503}}</ref> identifies four forms: descriptive, substantive, formalistic, and symbolic representation.

=== Formalistic representation ===
Formalistic representation focuses on the formal procedures of institutions and has two dimensions: authorization and accountability.<ref name="Fenichel Pitkin-1967" /> Authorization looks at the means by which a representative obtains their position in office. Accountability centers around the ability of constituents to ''punish'' representatives for failing to act according to their wishes or the ''responsiveness'' of the representative to the constituents.

=== Symbolic representation ===
Symbolic representation involves constituents' perception of their representatives, including the represented's feelings of being fairly and effectively represented.<ref name="Fenichel Pitkin-1967" /> Work on symbolic representation by scholars of race and ethnic politics indicate that marginalized group's presence cues the legitimacy of both outcomes and procedure.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Theobald |first1=N. A. |last2=Haider-Markel |first2=D. P. |date=2008-02-25 |title=Race, Bureaucracy, and Symbolic Representation: Interactions between Citizens and Police |journal=Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=409–426 |doi=10.1093/jopart/mun006 |issn=1053-1858 |doi-access=free}}</ref> A study by Nancy Scherer and Brett Curry was concerned with the question if racial diversity on the federal bench impact citizens' views of the U.S. courts. They found that African-Americans had more trust in the legitimacy of the federal courts as the proportion of African-American judges rose.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Scherer |first1=Nancy |last2=Curry |first2=Brett |date=2007 |title=Descriptive Race Representation and Public Support for the U.S. Courts |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.986356 |issn=1556-5068|doi-access=free }}</ref>  Another study by Matthew Hayes and Matthew V. Hibbing  evaluated that when the level of black representation was below proportional levels, perceptions of fairness and satisfaction decreased (e.g. symbolic representation).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hayes |first1=Matthew |last2=Hibbing |first2=Matthew V. |date=2016-05-13 |title=The Symbolic Benefits of Descriptive and Substantive Representation |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11109-016-9345-9 |journal=Political Behavior |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=31–50 |doi=10.1007/s11109-016-9345-9 |issn=0190-9320 |s2cid=254934399|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Descriptive representation ===
''Descriptive representation'' refers to whether officeholders resemble those being represented. It is concerned only with who a representative is, such as their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, etc.<ref name="Fenichel Pitkin-1967" />

=== Substantive representation ===
Substantive representation is defined as having one's policy views expressed by an elected representative, independent of whether the representatives resemble their constituents and their social and [[Demography|demographic]] identities.<ref name="Fenichel Pitkin-1967" /> There have been studies that examined the substantive benefits of minority groups's representation. In a series of experiments by Amanda Clayton, Diana Z. O'Brien, and Jennifer M. Piscopo, these researchers controlled both the makeup of the decision-making body and the outcome reached.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Clayton |first1=Amanda |last2=O'Brien |first2=Diana Z. |last3=Piscopo |first3=Jennifer M. |date=2018-09-25 |title=All Male Panels? Representation and Democratic Legitimacy |journal=American Journal of Political Science |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=113–129 |doi=10.1111/ajps.12391 |issn=0092-5853 |s2cid=158870325 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Across all decision outcomes and issue topics, women's equal presence legitimized the decision-making process for respondents. Moreover, gender balance helped improve perceptions of substantive legitimacy when the decision-making body reached an anti-feminist decision. This effect was more pronounced among men, who tend to hold less certain views on women's rights

==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=30em|content=* [[Anti-gender movement]]
* [[Chauvinism]]
* [[Culture war]]
* [[Diversity, equity, and inclusion]]
* [[Diversity (politics)]]
* [[Global majority]]
* [[Kyriarchy]]
* [[Legitimating ideology]]
* [[Machismo]]
* [[Nationalism and sports]]
* [[Other (philosophy)|Othering]]
* [[Recognition justice]]
* [[Single-issue politics]]
* [[Votebank]]
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |first=Francis |last=Fukuyama |title=Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment |publisher= Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2018 |isbn=978-0374129293}}
* Mike Gonzales. 2018. "{{unfit|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190203190145/https://www.heritage.org/civil-society/commentary/it-time-debate-and-end-identity-politics It Is Time to Debate—and End—Identity Politics]}}". The Heritage Foundation.
* {{cite book |last1= Reed Jr|first1=Adolph|last2= Michaels|first2=Walter Benn|date=2023 |title=No Politics but Class Politics|publisher=Eris|isbn=978-1912475575}}
* Christopher T. Stout. 2020. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=PGnaDwAAQBAJ The Case for Identity Politics: Polarization, Demographic Change, and Racial Appeals]''. University of Virginia Press.
* {{cite book |last=Táíwò|first=Olúfẹ́mi O. |author-link=Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò|date=2022 |title=Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else) |publisher=[[Haymarket Books]]|isbn=978-1642596885 |url=https://archive.org/details/elite-capture |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20161206100016/http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/project/57/religion_in_international_affairs.html Initiative on Religion in International Affairs] at Harvard
*Joan Mandel. [https://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/identity_pol.html "How Political Is the Personal?: Identity Politics, Feminism and Social Change"], [[University of Maryland, Baltimore County]]
*[https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/a-marxist-critiques-identity-politics/ "A Marxist Critiques Identity Politics"]. ''[[Seattle Weekly]]''. 25 April 2017.
*[https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/identity-politics-gay-rights-neoliberalism-stonewall-feminism-race "Identity Politics Can Only Get Us So Far"]. ''[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]]''. 3 August 2017.
*[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/14/identity-politics-right-left-trump-racism "Why identity politics benefits the right more than the left"]. ''[[The Guardian]]''. 14 July 2018.

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[[Category:Identity politics| ]]
[[Category:Human rights]]
[[Category:Intersectionality]]
[[Category:Majority–minority relations]]
[[Category:Political terminology]]