“Tribe or Tribble?”

Kumi Hodge discusses the interrelationships between Identity and Community in his essay “Making the Grade” and makes several assertions worth exploration. Hodge states “One of the most dominant stereotypes I see in my generation is the idea that when black students show interest in academics, they’re acting white. I’ve read statistics in public policy journal that say the popularity of black students slope negatively when their GPA reaches a 3.5” (Page 259) I don’t doubt the correlation, but does the popularity slope negatively when the GPA reaches 3.5 because that is an actual bench mark of intelligence that somehow alienates them from fellow students among their race, or could it be that 3.5 is the GPA published for the honor role students and their name and face then advertised as smart. If there are such few black faces among the sea of presumably white faces, is the affect stereotyping them as “acting white” instead of the highlighting their intelligence and academic success as an honor roll student and smart youth that they are? Could this be a negative incentive for minority youth to underachieve? I spent time on the honor role and found that all the hard work with rewards limited to home life, were not worth sacrificing the social scene at school only to be badged a dork and left without a place in the intramural activities. Instead I could coast on studies, hang out with friends, and tune out mom and dad’s insistence that I was potted.

While reading the Community DB #2 assignment description and prompt, I was reminded of the different essays I was considering when putting together my Identity DB 1 "How did we manage to survive adolescence?" post. Just before the prompt in our current community discussion board assignment, we are given the example “David Berreby says, ‘We want to live in tribes…[people] are looking to be told what group they belong to. And then once they do that, they want to know ‘What are the rules’” (123). This might as well be the high school cafeteria on a larger scale with bigger risks and rewards. The key difference is the primary assertion of the author; in “community” we want to be told were we fit instead of having an “identity” and locating or flying our own identity markers to find our people. There is a significant difference in philosophy between the two classes; in communities the individual achieves status and rank simply by being identified as a member of a particular “tribe” and might not have any real individual merit, where as “identity” gives the individual control over their success, is held to personal accountability, and must achieve at every level. Not just enough to meet the entry requirement of the desirable community.

In relatively controlled environments with large populations there might only be the choice between having a successful personal identity and achieving a more desirable community acceptance. In the freedom of everyday life, we have the ability to strike out on our own and find large groups where each individual is unique, yet each has a common thread tying them firmly to the community. The essay which illustrates this idea is Shari Caudron’s "Befriending Barbie". The introduction to her essay leads you briefly down the road every mind travels when conjuring an image of the typical Barbie collector when Caudron writes “Debbie Baker has extraordinary fingernails' (this sound like your mother has forced you to say something nice about that bratty girl Debbie Baker) 'They’re very long. And pink. Fantastically pink. So pink that if you weren’t completely focused on your conversation with her, you’d be distracted by them” (page 167) She gets your mind ready to partake in the hysterical Barbie bashing session she is just about to unleash to the sounds of cheers and hysterical laughter. Then she goes deep and introspective on the reader, and has one truly examining the worth of an individual, regardless of how silly their overzealous passion for a Barbie doll might seem to level headed you. When people are free to choose their community and can inter-associate regardless of identity, the family between genus and order can be discovered and value of each fully explore without being mutually exclusive.