Analysis Of Amy Chua's Revenge Of The Tribe

In a video, called “Revenge of the tribes: How the American Empire could fall,” on the website BigThink, Amy Chua, a Yale professor, explains her view on democracy and how it relates to tribalism. Chua starts the discussion by giving an example of group blindness in America. In her example she quotes Woodrow Wilson. She states that he said, in one of his famous speeches, that groups don’t exist in America, as well as, if someone considers them to be a part of a group they are not American. She states that his statement is essentially ridiculous given the time and era that he stated it. She believes that there are groups in America, especially in Wilson’s day. She points out how in Wilson’s day African Americans were experiencing violence and …show more content…
She supports her claim by explaining how people can be in groups of all different kinds and still be patriotic. She goes on to say that no matter what groups one belongs to they should still be able to say that they are Americans, or are a part of the nation, or country, that the come from. The warrant for her claim and support is that she hopes that her audience will begin to allow the smaller groups, or tribes, to come out and flourish like the majority groups do. The last claim that Chua makes is the certain tribes are hardening. She supports this claim by referencing the term coastal elites. She states that this term is confusing because the costal elites are not always coastal and not always elite. She goes on to reference China and the Hans. She also references how the whites in America, who have been in America for over 200 years are a hardened tribe. The warrant for her claim and support is that she hopes her audiences believes that the hardening of tribes is a bad thing. She hopes that her audience can see that the hardening of tribes will do nothing but