“Tribal,” Justin Lincoln

"We live in severely polarizing times. These last several months are a painful reminder of how disconnected we have become from one another as we retreat into our zones of safety. By 'otherizing' those with whom we don’t share identity, we spotlight difference and increase fear. In a less extreme form, this otherizing affects our discourse, our voting, our budget and resource allocation, our education, our housing, our justice, and so much more. At its height, this otherizing leads to the personal and group violence that punctuates our daily lives, that boldly declares the “other” as less than human, giving permission for the very violence that occurred. It’s a vicious and rapidly accelerating cycle, one all-too-familiar to Indigenous people.

"While in today’s discourse, across the political spectrum, the word “tribalism” is used to describe the otherizing and retreat of people to their own groups, to their camps of like-minded and similarly positioned friends and families, I believe that this is gross misuse of the term. This phenomenon is the antithesis of what the tribal nations that make up Native America represent.

"Indigenous peoples and groups from around the world may be our best instructors of the value brought by the group—of the tribe. Tribes of Indigenous peoples are about organizing, not otherizing. Tribal communities are a way to recognize kinship and shared responsibility, instill and preserve culture and reciprocity, and apportion and steward resources. The ties of a tribe define one’s primary relationships, while recognizing or even mandating a wider set of relationships."

Article: Taking Back “Tribalism”: What We All Can Learn from Tribal Nations