Summary

In the chapter entitled “Tribe,” Lalami discusses the fact that people often feel allied with certain people due to shared traits, and feel opposed to people bearing different traits. In the United States, the category of race is significant in this context. Lalami discusses various successful Presidential campaigns that capitalized on white Americans’ fears of nonwhite Americans. A defining feature of whiteness in America is remaining silent on America’s injustice against nonwhite people. White Americans enjoy many substantial privileges due to their whiteness, and they maintain these privileges by denying the existence of widespread, systemic injustice against nonwhite people. Lalami discusses some of the methods by which corporations and governing bodies in the U.S. track race and discriminate based on racial identity. Meanwhile, on a social level, white citizens often feel empowered to assert their own will over the wills...