Humans are a complex species and although we have constantly been evolving through the centuries, one thing that hasn’t changed is our tribalism. Tribalism is the deep, primal instinct that every single human has that calls for them to stick with people who look like them, think like them, act like them, or are similar to them in any other way. According to Merriam-Webster, it is described as strong in-group loyalty. It also causes them to reject some other tribes for their own unique features.
This way of thinking and acting has been a problem since the beginning of time. Although it has been getting better as time goes on, we still face problems in our society regarding acceptance of others. The current problem that society faces is multifaceted as well, which complicates things further. People discriminate against one another for superficial qualities such as race, religion, and sexual orientation.
It’s not enough to just identify these issues. These problems have been going on forever, so why does it matter now? The issue now is the effect that this tribal behavior is having on schools.
Many students at Pleasant Valley have been outspoken about the amount of racism and judgement they face from people they don’t even know. This causes extreme tension between students and creates an atmosphere that is difficult to learn in.
An emergence in this type of tribalistic behavior has arrived at PV this year. Students have reported that there have been all sorts of racist, sexist, and discriminatory behavior in the school. Sanjiv Iyer, junior, believes that this behavior has been normalized because of how often it is used in our school. “I think a lot of people use derogatory terms about girls or different races. Sometimes it’s used just between friends, but it essentially stigmatizes it and normalizes that kind of behavior.”
This kind of tribalistic behavior is dangerous as the normalization of such attitudes and beliefs creates an environment in our school where people are constantly thinking negative thoughts about other demographics and groups just because it is the “norm.”
Kishore Vijaykumar, junior, also believes that the school atmosphere is suffering due to this tribalistic behavior. He said, “PV needs to figure out a way to get people to see that those derogatory behaviors that have become norms are negatively impacting our school.” This is something that is very true and PV needs to find a solution to the negativity and tribalism in our school. Hopefully that solution comes quickly before the negative impacts have any huge long term effects.
