An icon in radical politics, activist and author Norman Finkelstein is a renowned expert in the Holocaust, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Marxist theory. It is less well known that Professor Finkelstein has also been an early and important figure in the effort to combat wokeism. In his recent book, "I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get To It: Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture and Academic Freedom", Finkelstein focuses his keen forensic eye on the canonical texts of identity politics. (June 2025)

1. From your traditional class politics perspective, grifters, economic elites, and corporations have been the biggest beneficiaries of identity politics. Wokesters demands appear radical but are politically inert. Their messages are a godsend to virtue-signalling corporations because it fractures the have-nots into subgroups, thereby pre-empting the possibility of broad unity. It reconfigures the exploiting class to include “a fair percentage of us” while leaving the uppermost tier of the social structure intact. What lessons can the traditional Left learn from all this?

The basic lesson is that, for all its limits, errors, and crimes, the Old Left still asked the right questions and correctly prioritized political demands. Also, a good litmus test of radicalism is, "Does it require any sacrifices”? If it is sacrifice-free - indeed, if it promises rich rewards to its "leaders" before the Revolution-- then it's probably not radical; on the contrary.

2. You convincingly expose and analyze the mendacity and vacuity in the theorizing and scholarship of the foundational texts of identity politics, as well as the pervasive woke lexicon (intersectionality, settler colonialism, heteronormativity, etc.) which you regard as an impoverished excuse for theory. What do you consider to be the critical features of strong theories, and most effective modes of intellectual inquiry for understanding the historical and socio-cultural phenomena (e.g. forms of inequality) that the wokists are most concerned with?

The critical features of strong theories are: insightful, accessible, and ability to accurately predict future events.

3. Dislodging the hideous blight of woke politics, you maintain, requires openly confronting and persuasively responding to their falsehoods. How can this be achieved when the wokesters have overtaken much of the academy (sociology for sure) and serious scholars remain fearful to challenge the propagandists and woke liberals.

I believe that in the wake of Harris's disastrous defeat, on the one hand, and Trump's aggressive attack on wokeism, on the other, space has opened up for criticism.

4. In your classroom, you present competing perspectives on a topic in a balanced manner so students do not know where you stand. That is appropriate for introductory classes. For upper level classes I am ok with the lectern as a soapbox or political rally. As a student, I was mesmerized by the legendary Trotskyite historian Harvey Goldberg whose lectures brought alive historical class conflict. Do you make a case for your views in your upper level classes? Provided alternative perspectives are offered this would surely be a service to CUNY students.

I have only rarely taught upper-level classes. But to your point, I do not modify my style. Students should figure out Truth on their own.