America and Tribalism

Why is it that when a police officer in Minnesota kills a local black man during a traffic stop, anti-police protest marches spring-up in distant places such as New York City and Philadelphia?  And tragically, individual law enforcement personnel are later shot in other way-off locals. 

What is the connection?

 

The apparent answer is that many blacks view cops – no matter their race or location – as “them” – the enemy.  It’s as if the police across the country constitute a standard unit, united in their attitudes and conduct so that the actions of one or a few represent the whole.  Police are seen as a tribe.  Thus, all members are complicit in – responsible for – the actions of any.

Of course the term “tribe” is usually applied to a collection of people united by shared family and ethnic ties and constitute a unit both political and social.  The group, not its members, is paramount.

Gangs function like that.  An attack against a member of one is avenged by an assault on a member of the other group.  The particular target of revenge isn’t the individual member who made the initial attack.  Seeking him out is actually not at all necessary.  Any member of the opposing group will do.  After all, the entire tribe is culpable for the actions of any part of it.

Gangs, clans and tribes, they all pretty much act the same way.  And that used to be what most Americans uniformly resisted and rejected.

America stood – once upon a time – for individual rights and responsibilities and against group identification.

Of course, there have always been contrary currents.  The “Hatfields and McCoys” are more than a flippant example.  But tribal views were disfavored by the broad public.  They represented something that simply wasn’t consistent with American ideals.

That is no longer so. 

Now, large numbers of Americans focus on membership in ethnic and racial groups.  “Diversity” has come to mean group representation.  Every tribe is seemingly entitled to a proportional presence in any setting deemed important, from university faculties to political bodies.  In many respects, one’s tribal identification in modern American society has become more important than one’s individual merit.

Think of all the well-intentioned efforts in recent decades to promote racial and ethnic diversity, from affirmative action to university racial quotas.  These programs have facilitated and encouraged the rise of tribalism in America. 

The slayings of Dallas police offices dramatically illustrated how very corrosive for America tribalism can be.