But the Hutus and Tutsis were of the same race, by that token. Different tribes =/= different races.

Don't even need different languages. The Hutus and Tutsis speak the same language.

Same in Iraq. Different religions is sufficient.

Different ancestries.

Different socio-economic classes.

Even political parties become a source of tribalism if you let them.

Tribalism = boundaries. We do our serious fighting across boundaries, not so much within them. Thing is, the boundaries we set up are always righteous and just; their boundaries are always evil and foul. But as soon as you see "us" and "them" like that, there's a boundary and there's tribalism, with all the dehumanization, hate, contempt, loathing, and self-righteous justification that goes along with it.

Different sects of the same religion -- Shia vs. Sunni

Seriously, of course ANY group can be a tribe. The people who work in the front of the office versus the people who work in the back. People who are assigned to a special project versus those who are not. Those who adopt a current clothing style versus those who adopt a different current clothing style.

When Obama said, "“It is literally in my DNA to be suspicious of tribalism," I can promise he meant just that, no special interpretation needed. To join a group and then join in group-think, especially about targets outside the group -- because that is what people who belong in that group do, is not in his DNA.

...is not just multiracial, but multicultural, and even though there's been a couple of centuries of intermarriage, continuous waves of immigration ensure that whole groups still cling to ancestral identities in the present. I just reconnected with a classmate who told me of the intense pressure his mother put him under in high school to date and marry a "pure Chinese girl." My own experience was that racial/ethnic identity was really malleable, though, for a lot of people.

Obama spent part of his formative years in Indonesia, where again there are layers of cultural complexity built in. Then back to Hawai'i for the rest of his childhood before relocating to the Mainland permanently.

I don't know about the POTUS, but only on the Mainland have I encountered such black/white thinking about race, and by that I mean the either/or, though you can take the pun if you want to.

From Merriam Webster:

"Simple Definition of bigot

: a person who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people, ideas, etc. : a bigoted person; especially : a person who hates or refuses to accept the members of a particular group (such as a racial or religious group)"

...but even using the word "bigotry" is considered derisive and inflamatory (especially to bigots), where "tribalism" has a pleasant academic sound to it.

Or even understanding it. We're going to miss him.

I'm not really doubting you or your source... " It is LITERALLY in my DNA....." just seems like an odd thing to come out of President Barack Obama's mouth. His children maybe.....

But overall it sounds like an Obama ideal. Working together and not buying into fighting each other.