Stigmatising it cannot change the fact that the support structure for ethnicity, just like religion, politics, race, region, gender, and of late sexual orientation, is such that you don't make jokes about someone else’s, especially in a pejorative manner and don't expect a comeback for your comment. See, just like lions will protect their prides against rival coalitions, man is as ready to defend his, but usually against bigotry and recklessness. So if we don't want it to get messy, let us be tactful and take into account how messy it could get before throwing the first punch.
I'm not saying scratch tribalism, because I'll be blinding my eyes pretending not to notice how it's occasionally being drawn on; that's not a 'for' or 'against' debate topic. However, it's now usually selfishly incited, and disappointingly, the appalling judgements are being made plausible by fairly intelligent folks. Given how an average Gambian household has today become a 'united nations' thanks to intermarriage and migration, it's safe to say that tribalism is not as rife as we make it seem, cronyism is.
Today, who is whose bestie has grown to be the foremost motivator of actions and reactions, including how we react to even the things we see on social media, essence regardless. Same way, our allegiances, devotion to causes, and even lines of political patronage may be outwardly traced to principles and ideas, but that's usually only on the pretext; it doesn’t take a genius to see that. Apparently, the cry out is only when we would rather it's to the advantage of someone or something we consider ours, or someone we agree within with.
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