"Racism" & Group Psychosis

[el_bryanto]

2. It's an interesting discussion

The benefit of it is that tribalism is pretty common - even if it's not broken down in terms of race or ethnicity. It is rooted, to a certain extent, in the denial of humanity to people outside the tribe or in the other tribe (if you believe yourself to be in conflict). Someone in the other tribe is of little to no value, and is worthy of little to no respect - they just aren't worthwhile.

That said, the area where this analysis falls down a bit is on the power equation of tribalism. Tribalism is rarely a good thing, particularly when it denigrates people outside your tribe. But in the case of the "white tribe" we hold more power in society - socially, economically, politically - so when we engage in tribal thinking we have a lot more potential to hurt those we designate as other.

Bryant