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I have been coming a disturbing conclusion, that tribe.net is an almost all-white community, with little or no diversity or minority voice. Once I linked this to the burning man, it made more sense, since that event is also like a white people convention. It's not like I hate white people, or their society and culture; I was brought up in that world, and now I am bored of it.
I am for diversity and internationalism, and this tribe stuff is very parochial. What is a tribe, anyway? It's an exclusionary device used to enmesh a bunch of people who have the same viewpoints, if not DNA, and organize the group using arbitrary criteria to expropriate labor. So; the tribe organizes around the titular leader, all wealth and power accrue to him who then dispenses it downwards. It's very autocratic without the benefits of even that symbiosis of class structure and dualism.
Everything passes through the leader. In order for the males to have sex with the females, they have to have to submit to the will of the leader. This is how you can identify all tribal social structure. Tribalism is even more primitive than capitalism, and even more self-delusional.
Tribes are dying everywhere, it's a dying social system because everyone is frozen in their tracks forver, there is no movement, no dialectic, only stagnation.
I am for diversity and internationalism, and this tribe stuff is very parochial. What is a tribe, anyway? It's an exclusionary device used to enmesh a bunch of people who have the same viewpoints, if not DNA, and organize the group using arbitrary criteria to expropriate labor. So; the tribe organizes around the titular leader, all wealth and power accrue to him who then dispenses it downwards. It's very autocratic without the benefits of even that symbiosis of class structure and dualism.
Everything passes through the leader. In order for the males to have sex with the females, they have to have to submit to the will of the leader. This is how you can identify all tribal social structure. Tribalism is even more primitive than capitalism, and even more self-delusional.
Tribes are dying everywhere, it's a dying social system because everyone is frozen in their tracks forver, there is no movement, no dialectic, only stagnation.
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Re: The White People Tribe
Sun, December 25, 2005 - 10:01 PMHave you done key word searches to actually see how many different cultural tribes there are? I think you'll find that Latino, Latina, and Asian tribes are on here...that's if you are looking for specific tribes relating to specific cultures or cultural interests...Tribe is all about people and their interests, and last I checked, you can be any race, gender or background to have an interest in something.
As far as your claims of tribes being exclusionary, I find it quite the opposite. I've run across a lot of people who live in close minded small town parts of the U.S. and other countries and are so happy that they have found other people to connect to who share their interests. They live in places where they are shunned for those interests and cannot fully express themselves.
"Tribe" is just a word for this mode of connectivity and there are no "leaders" we bow to here or give any labor to. (well, with all the recent censoring some folks might think we are bowing). Tribe is certainly a gender neutral zone (meaning not predominantly male), and in some cases clearly a pro-multi gender empowering platform.
Have you been on here long? You should take a look around. -
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Re: The White People Tribe
Sat, December 31, 2005 - 2:27 AM"Everything passes through the leader. In order for the males to have sex with the females, they have to have to submit to the will of the leader."
Not in any human race I'VE ever known, bub. You should get out more... -
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Unsu...
Re: The White People Tribe
Sat, February 18, 2006 - 11:25 PMsounds like yur just stirring the shit to me -
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Unsu...
Re: The White People Tribe
Sun, February 19, 2006 - 2:29 AMwhy do people always say that thing involving white people are devoid of culture? do white people have no culture? or is it just a different culture? perhaps the large number of white people seen on sites like this and myspace.com is indicative of a more alarming social trend, that full high-speed internet is not very common among non-white communities... or maybe not, just a thought. -
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Re: The White People Tribe
Sun, February 19, 2006 - 4:17 AMnormally when people talk about kultchur I reach for my cock. Sometimes this multi-kultchurism they're peddling seems like a world full of people wearing nike and adidas eating mcdonalds listening to gnasta rap and watching hollywood movies. -
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Unsu...
Re: The White People Tribe
Sun, February 19, 2006 - 12:05 PMculture is what grows between my toes -
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Re: The White People Tribe
Mon, February 20, 2006 - 2:15 PMIt's nice to know that colors are the way we are all defined.
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Re: The White People Tribe
Mon, April 24, 2006 - 4:10 PMi haven't been here in forever
but im surprised to hear what i do on this issue even here
lets just clear a few things up
there is a domonant culture. in this country it is white.
nuff said?
ok, how about this one:
racism DOES exists
still with me?
ok
TRIBE, despite they small number of "cultural" tribes and people of color in them, is a VVVVEEEEEEERRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYY WHITE PLACE TO BE. i say this as a person of color. it is very easy to feel rather alone in tribe.
it is also very easy to run into white people who try to pretend that racial differences or racial oppression doesn't exist. these people try to say that everything is everything and that they see no color and well hey aren't we just denying white culture and well anyway aren't we all "of color" or mixed anyway.... and some other things i have heard here.
but the point is, all those arguments do is deny racial oppression and the fact that there is a dominant culture and that it is WHITE!!! well and seems to make some white people feel more righteous or less guilty or something. excuses folks from actually addressing race issues, and sort of turns people of color and other people who might complain about racial disparity into "nothing but whiners."
anyway, so just wake the fuck up, progressive conscious people, and be less afraid to look at race shit for what it is, OK? OK. thank you. -
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Re: The White People Tribe
Thu, April 27, 2006 - 10:17 AMWell, racism does exist. I think more to the point on Tribe it could be economically excluding (it costs money to have a computer and get on the internet), but seeing as they allow anyone to join for free and you can post just about anything you want (with recent censoring removed) I fail to see overt racism.
"lets just clear a few things up
there is a domonant culture. in this country it is white. "
Ok. I see that.
"TRIBE, despite they small number of "cultural" tribes and people of color in them, is a VVVVEEEEEEERRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYY WHITE PLACE TO BE. i say this as a person of color. it is very easy to feel rather alone in tribe. "
Again, I would say this is more a matter of class, economics, than racial exclusion. There is no one forbidding anyone of any ethnicity to join. Predominately, the internet is white. So I think this is the wrong battle to pick, that tribe is somehow racist.
So, I mean, sure. I see plenty of racial disparity in the world. I dont perpetuate any of it. I also see sexual preference discrimination, I actually worked for the Human Rights Campaign for awhile. But unless you have specific instances of some sort of discrimination on this website, which I would then certainly do whatever I could to help anyone fight against, I think this whole thread is sort of meaningless.
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Re: The White People Tribe
Thu, April 27, 2006 - 1:43 PMi didn't say tribe was actively racist.
i don't remember if the original poster is saying that either.
exclusion yes.
but i just find the flat out denial of racial disparity in tribe to be anoying and tiresome at best. lots of guilty white liberalism around trying to absolve itself. usually its not even woth arguing over.
it is what it be
fuck if i'll ever bother changing it.
i'd rather go make for some computer access and start something else.
altho, there are far more people of color with access than there used to be, even in the broke ass neighborhoods. not tosay that economics doesn't still keep a lot of folks from being on the internet.
but none the less, there is such a thing as institutionalized racism, which is what happens passively in a generally racist society. it can't help but happen. i don't think tribe is full of racists. it could be. i just don't know. i do know that it takes active effort to not end up passively turning into a racially biased place/thing. tribe is certainly not worried about making that effort. again, not that its worth MY time to fix tribe. but, well you see what im saying.... -
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Re: The White People Tribe
Thu, April 27, 2006 - 1:59 PM"guilty white liberalism"
What if I am not guilty or liberal? Or proud or conservative?
"but i just find the flat out denial of racial disparity in tribe to be anoying and tiresome at best. "
Oh, I didnt deny. The internet is mostly white. Tribe is no exception. If you agree that tribe is not actively racist, then what exactly is the point? I belong to a tribe with a Philipina moderator. Actually, two with two different philipinas. Searching tribe, I found a "Gay Black People" tribe (167 members), Black Vegetarians (67 members), Latinas who Love Black Men, and on and on. In a religous discussion tribe I am in, moderatoed by an arab I think, there are all sorts of ethnicities. Most of the fan tribes (tribes for one paticular individual) I belong to are for any number of different races, asian, eskimo, native american, and an Israeli Jew.
Did I create any of these tribes? No. Its there, if you go look for it. I you content yourself with the white liberal tribes, then that is all you see of tribe. If you only get on tribe to look at girls boobies, you could do that too. It does not mean tribe is a site for looking at girls boobs, or that it is a passive medium for pnography. It means the people who surfed here, madea free account, are advocating porn. This is a medium for whatever passes through it, whether it is egalitarian or facist. -
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Re: The White People Tribe
Fri, April 28, 2006 - 11:41 AMhoney, i have also not accused you of anything.
good for you if you are not a guilty liberal.
except i'm starting to hear guilty reactions where i hadn't really before.
and i don't hate people who react in guilt, just get tired of folks who stay there.
also, im not saying that there are no people of color in here.
by the way, did you check how many white people are in those people of color tribes? that always surprises me.
anyway, why are you defending tribe so hard?
is it really so hard to believe
that people of color are a minority in here?
and that we all know that tribe is very white culturally speaking?
and that TONS of white people on tribe also acknowledge this fact?
is there some REASON i should need to be here defending these things?
i think if you are actually taking those things as being a personal attack or accusation then you actually have some liberal guilt to shed.
i find it kind of dumb to come into a progressive tribe and hear this kind of prattle. and im sort of annoyed with myself at the moment for participating.
why be a defensive white boy. do you love tribe that much? have that much faith in it? why don't you try running around taking a survey of who feels that tribe is a very white place rather than trying to defend it and act like saying such a simple thing is some personal attack on you.
this is so dumb.
pardon me while i prepare for may 1st. -
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Re: The White People Tribe
Tue, May 2, 2006 - 1:21 PMWell, I am not sure I am defending tribe. Its a free site where I get to type stuff that other people read, and thats about the level of of anything I think about tribe. And since I made the point that the internet is mostly white, and it seems obvious that tribe is part of the internet, I havent disagreed with you or actually tried to defend tribe at all.
But you still didnt answer my main question, and my point was this:
If the internet is primarily white, if that is primarily for economic reasons, if Tribe is not activley filtering out by race element, what is your point? Is it just to be shrill and angry? Arent you bitching about an effect of an entirely different problem? I mean, if it makes you feel better or something, I say go for it. If not, what is your point? Why are you bothering?
I think a more interesting point is that if the internet is such a great mode of free communication, why is it so full of mostly white people jerking off on sites like this all day?
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Re: The White People Tribe
Thu, April 26, 2007 - 9:11 PMyou are right on, arize, and it was brave of you to post. you go.
tribe, like so many manifestations of "alternative" culture, is incredibly, depressingly white. Not so "alternative" after all. Just one more reflection of the hegemony.
And I'm saying this, to those of you who posted defenses, as a white girl.
Racism is in the water, folks, and none of us are exempt no matter how alternative or progressive or healed we like to think of ourselves.
I think the opportunity here (on tribe) is to leverage the "alternative" mentality of the majority, and give white tribe members a chance to plug into something that pushes to change the way the system works (ie benefitting white people). White guilt doesn't help anything.
I'd like to recommend the Untraining trainings, books by Tim Wise and damali ayo, and Theatre of the Oppressed workshops as great places to start delving into how white privilege operates and how it's our responsibility as white folks to level the field.
(And before it starts: fellow womyns, fellow queers, young peeps, disabled peeps, non-US-passport-holders, and other one-down folks: of course privilege is slippery and operates on many vectors. Of course you can be less advantaged than a straight and/or able-bodied and/or ivy-league educated and/or 50-something man who lords it over you in the cubicle where you churn papers to line his pockets with profit. That is not the point here.)
is there an explicit anti-racism tribe here somewhere?
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Re: The White People Tribe
Sun, April 29, 2007 - 9:49 PMWhat I see here is a complaint that tribe.net is largely white. Okay, I'm another white male, here on tribe.
I see some comments here which refer to a digital divide; the Internet is certainly more affordable for those who have money.
My observation of tribe.net is that the people I have encountered here seem to be more highly educated than on other social networking sites. I don't know why that is, but I suppose it could be another aspect of the same issue.
But what I don't see here is any explanation from the original poster or from Arize, as to what they think is the cause of this lack of diversity. I know I certainly don't have anything like what I would call an adequate answer. -
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Re: The White People Tribe
Sun, May 6, 2007 - 7:41 PM<<those of you who posted defenses, as a white girl.
Racism is in the water, folks, and none of us are exempt no matter how alternative or progressive or healed we like to think of ourselves.>>
Kindly speak for yourself. I don't think you can indulge liberal bourgeois guilt and be much of a radical. ALL racism and color judgments serve the oppressor, it seems to me.
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Re: The White People Tribe
Sat, April 21, 2007 - 12:01 PMidentity politics distracts us from the fact that everyone is involved in the class struggle.
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Re: The White People Tribe
Fri, April 27, 2007 - 12:29 PMYour view of tribes and their functions is way off. Humans are tribal people. We need small groups with which to affiliate. This doesn't have to be race or class and, in fact, is mostly religious these days. As for there being few people of color on Tribe.net. Oh well. It's here. They can join just like anyone else.
