Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews

by David L. Bernstein

In 2013, the writer Matt Bruenig coined the term “identitarian deference” (ID) to describe the concept that “privileged individuals should defer to the opinions and views of oppressed individuals, especially on topics relevant to those individuals’ oppression.” If standpoint epistemology theorizes that marginalized people have special insight into oppression, and thus the singular authority to define that oppression for the rest of society, then identitarian deference is the expression of standpoint doctrine in the behavior of institutions. Jewish organizations—like other institutions—often defer to people with lived experience, mostly people of color with a Progressive political orientation, and young Jews whose delicate