Prejudice, Racism, and Tribalism: A Primer for White People

We hear it all the time: Americans need to have a conversation about race. The obvious reason for that recommendation is what appears to be increasing racial polarization more than fifty years after the landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960s. Why is this happening at this time in history? Are these conversations only reinforcing existing attitudes and prejudices? Is it possible for White people to have a conversation about race, even with one another, without becoming angry? Is this why we (White people) have become so obsessed with military weaponry? When all is said and done, who's winning and who's losing?

This book is the author's way of exploring these issues, one at a time. Prejudice, racism, and tribalism are, in a sense, variations on a theme. All people harbor prejudices. Racial prejudices are only one form among many. Raise someone in a racially homogeneous society, and similar prejudices are likely to appear. Tribal prejudices are so universal that they probably point to some biological imperative.

What is racism? Is it just one of those things that we know when we see it, or is there value in defining it more precisely? Are all White people racists? Whose definition of critical race theory and/or the so-called great replacement theory do you like?