Day: April 4, 2017

It is tribes all the way down.

Think about it: We are all part of some form of tribe which is deeply entrenched in another tribe beholden to yet another tribe and so on. I am living proof of this concept. I am an American. I am a native New Yorker. I am a Black man. I am a man. These are affiliations that, for the most part, I cannot escape. I am also a Knicks fan (yeah, I know). I am a NY Giants fan. I am a Maricopa Rams Coach. All of these sports affiliations are very much tribal.

Consider the social definition of tribe: a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader. (Dictionary.com) Alongside that definition, consider the biological definition of tribe from the same, accredited source: a taxonomic category that ranks above genus and below family or subfamily, usually ending in -ini (in zoology) or -eae (in botany). When you link these definitions to the basics of human behavior you see that we are all, in a sense, tribal. This is especially true of sports culture where the ‘leadership’ is at first seen as nebulous but is actually very very clear. In any sports culture the leader is usually the star player and or coach. The Patriots fan base rallies voraciously around Tom Brady and Belicheck. Together they represent a leadership that actively supercedes the ownership of the organization–an org that is larger than the financial org or the team itself. It has implanted itself as a way of life into the hearts and minds of the believers.

Speaking of belief is integral to tribal culture. We believe in our teams, yes, but we are also beholden to religious tribes. Christianity is one big tribe led by a shared concept of God as embodied in Jesus Christ. Meanwhile the Catholic tribe is led by the Pope.

Corporations are tribes, driven by CEOs. Families are tribes, driven by matriarchs or patriarchs. All of it, Tribes.

Tribes. All the way down.

I’d been ready to fire off a priceless rant about joiners and what it means to belong. It was triggered by me seeing a slew of people in high black socks with Nike SB on the side–a clear sign that you want to identify with the skater culture but aren’t actually from one of those pockets where skating was first popularized. I wanted to talk so much trash. Then I stopped and wondered, why?

I am not formally a sociologist. I abandoned that career to write stories and teach english. The writing could’ve been continued alongside the sociology, but I needed to get paid. Despite not holding the job title (yet brandishing the degree) I see things in human nature that interest and often disturb me. I get disturbed and have no other recourse but to write. This is not so much out of judgement but out of understanding and awareness. I am not disturbed because x, y, or z is wrong. I get disturbed because of how often our behaviors model that of pack animals. We laud grouping. We seek a visual leader. We grab onto anything that signifies belonging. What bothered me about the Nike SB socks is that the people who had them on weren’t wearing them because of what they felt like but because of what message the wearing sent to other people. It remains a social cue–saying what set you rep.