Confronting Tribalism in America

Opinion by Jacob Wheeler Sun editor

Some refuse to wear protective face masks in businesses, restaurants and airplanes—despite the Coronavirus and the effectiveness of masks in preventing the pandemic’s spread. They view mask requirements as an affront to their personal freedom, or they don’t take the COVID threat seriously.

Some cast accusatory stares this spring at anyone traveling here from outside our region—the dangerous assumption was that they were auto- matically bringing the disease with them, and they weren’t preparing to self-quarantine once they arrived here.

Many of us in the white majority didn’t fully grasp the ways racial in- equality and police tactics undermine communities of color until the Black Lives Matter Movement birthed what may become a new civil rights move- ment in the United States. Jelani Cobb wrote in a recent story for The New Yorker how Black America represents a different place from America at large. Most of us in majority white America saw George Floyd’s murder in Minne- apolis as happening in a foreign country. “Is it really that bad?” we asked our- selves the rhetorical question. Yes, it is.

Meanwhile, the Coronavirus has disproportionally affected communi- ties of color. Here in Michigan, where 14 percent of the state’s population is African-American, 40 percent of the state’s first 1,000 COVID-19 deaths were blacks. And yet, some refuse to wear face masks when they enter indoor public places. They refuse to protect themselves, they refuse toprotect others, they refuse to protect the whole community. They heed the call only of their tribe.

We can do better, America. We must confront our tribalism, our personal biases, our addiction to news sources that conveniently fit our preordained world view but actually teach us nothing of the complex nation around us.