I am convinced that bigotry is at the root of human mistreatment of other humans. Bigotry is intolerance of other people based solely on their group membership. It is an emotional rather than a rational dislike of a whole category of people. I’m pretty sure that bias and bigotry are both rooted in our evolutionary need for connection and survival. We seem to naturally prefer those who are like ourselves in significant ways such as ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, or even love for a particular football team. It stands to reason that on an evolutionary level, humans reject those whose differences appear to threaten their connections and survival as a group. Perhaps bigotry is a first cousin to rivalry.
It is feasible that bigotry and rivalry are actually closer than cousins; perhaps they are brothers born from the same parents: tribalism and survival instinct. Our species has survived until now by banning together in tribes and fighting other tribes for control over land and scarce resources. Human history is a story about conflict, one group pitted against another as rivals who come to hate each other by concentrating on differences enough to kill, oppress, and enslave other humans. In the past, human leaders exploited these perceived differences using loyal and gullible members of their own tribes as pons to secure control over land or other resources needed for survival.
Today, the majority of leaders are motivated by personal economic gain and political domination, not the literal life and death survival of their tribe. And unfortunately, the most loyal and gullible pons who are get caught up in the dehumanizing lies about other human beings outside their political or religious tribe become ruthless killers. Bigotry is a powerful emotional tool, triggered only by immoral leaders. The FBI says such pons have been “radicalized”. We’ve watched this play out in the Middle East and Northern Africa and now it is here.
In the U.S., it has become painfully clear that new tribes have emerged along political lines with one tribe in particular looking to dominate the entire country. Their leaders have made this a question of survival around certain questions: Who will decide the moral direction of the population? Who gets the job opportunities? Who gets to make the rules? Who gets to decide right from wrong? Who gets to enter our borders? The young men in Charlottesville, chanting “Jews will not replace us” says it all. The insurrection was a warning.
Personally, I prefer sports rivalries over political ones. Sports is about trophies and bragging rights. Many of us were once willing to allow sports to satisfy our basic tribal rival instincts. On game day, we wore our colors and openly hated on the rival team. Things could get heated, but people seldom died over the rivalry. The Olympics was a good proxy for national rivalry for a while. But some leaders have abandoned sports as a satisfying substitute for tribal rivalry because the personal payoff wasn’t high enough. However, they need pons to do their bidding.
In our nation, we are reverting to a dangerous kind of tribalism that has less to do with sports, but more to do with politics. A few power-hungry republicans decided that having a black president was a bridge too far and decided to become an aggressive tribe, first destroying political compromise, then dehumanizing democrats as evil pedophiles and baby killers who are communists. They allowed a “strong man” to take over their party in order to create a tribal army. Trump republicans have become increasingly bold in their willingness to outright steal elections after stacking the courts. And now they are showing a willingness to take up arms against those who oppose them.
The problem is that too many people allow themselves to be pons. They have bought into the unfounded fears stoked by these greedy and power-hungry leaders who need them to wage their wars. These media and political leaders need tribal conflict to make money and to gain or maintain power. So, every day we see them stoking the fire, getting people riled up, because igniting bigotry is a surefire way to get people to act aggressively against others whom they now view as a threat. They think they are patriots, but they are not. They think they are preserving a nation when they are tearing it down.
The bigotry running rampant in our nation today is dangerous. If not curbed, it will surely lead to violence in the streets. Better humans will tap into their ability to reason and to overcome the instinct to automatically hate people with opposing viewpoints. Better humans will recognize that we don’t need bigotry as a motivator to vote for people, we need good sense and accurate information. Better humans will challenge bigotry, will call out leaders who provoke it, and stick to sports to fulfill their need for tribal rivalry.