RACISM & TRIBALISM

 

 The longer that social and political issues are driven by ethnic or tribal concerns rather than by cross-tribal economic inequalities, the harder it will remain to move democratic institutions, including our own, to a higher plain.  This statement is certainly true for nations in the Mid East, South Asia and Africa, where kinship culture has lead to explosive violence and ethnic cleansing.   Interestingly, this observation is now front and center in connection with the debate over race relations stirred up by the Zimmerman acquittal.  Should we be debating racism, African-American urban culture, or both?  I submit we should take a look at the culture as well as the specific crime.

Let us imagine that St. Peter is not quite sure what to do with Trayvon Martin following his untimely death.  He decides to give Trayvon a choice:  “Son, do you want to be remembered as the victim of racial profiling and stand your ground laws and be assigned to the house with Mr. King, Rosa Parks and a few white freedom riders?  Or would you rather go to the house that Malcom X built.  It is a little on the loud side with all those rappers and angry intercity organizers.  You will be remembered as that proud young black man who got physical with an older, bigger and better armed dude who did not like you walking in his neighborhood.”  Which would be more attractive to Trayvon?  A symbol of racial injustice or a life cut short because he followed the rules of the tribe and did not back down? A victim or an urban legend?

           Political debate in this country has never been so fragmented, with the impossibility of reaching common ground.  One reason for this dilemma is that we are witnessing a “nova burst” of tribalism in America.  Wealthy white conservatives have encouraged and supported tribalism because once this era comes to a close, their political power base is gone forever.  They need the tribes to agree on anything but economic inequality.  They need the tribes to work at cross purposes.  They need the tribes to be afraid of each other and of their government.

 The wealthy conservatives must know, now that they have lost the Latino tribe, it is only a matter of time before the Evangelical tribe decides that pocket book issues are as important as the family value ones.  They need the conversation to be about race, immigration and sexual/birth preferences, not wealth distribution.  Now wealthy conservatives  are the ones who need to be afraid of losing their “trickle down” economy controlled by puppet masters at the top.

          The 1960s saw the consolidation of the African-American tribe that remains with us today.  Following the initial push for civil rights, we saw the emergence of black identity in our universities, in the jungles of Vietnam and in the inner cities.  This was followed by decades of a tough as nails urban culture encouraged by the entertainment industry, professional athletics, and the media.  Being black and supporting the tribe became more important than supporting all of the other folks facing economic inequalities, be they Asian, Appalachian or Latino.  To be fair, each of the other underprivileged groups has gathered around their own tribal leaders.  The Scots-Irish Appalachian tribe goes back hundreds of years.

          I believe that the evolution of the African American tribe was a necessary step in the history of black integration into the American cultural fabric.  I further believe some of the clichés, myths and negative characteristics of being part of the tribe are now hurting that integration. The glorification of urban culture and street justice were responsible, at least in part, for perceptions on both sides leading up to the Zimmerman episode and many others of a similar nature.  These isolating, self centered tribal tendencies are preventing the black community from taking its place at the vanguard of the push for social democracy for all Americans.

          Thankfully, several developments will hasten the decline of the negative characteristics of black tribalism.  First, the election and eight year leadership of Barack Obama, who has politically represented all Americans in need of social democracy, presents a none urban model of black identity; second, an influx of younger Americans who see past color barriers in their relationships and do not believe violent abd sexist urban culture is a positive force for change; and third the obvious need to replace racisim with economic inequality as the major impediment to social progress. Lastly, if “Country-Rap”, also known as “Hick-Hop” is really gaining in popularity, maybe the tribal walls are coming down faster than we imagine.  The music is always the first to know.