What To Do When Your Tribe Tells You Who You're Supposed to Be

The New Physician: Today’s Difficult Problem · Aug 16, 2026 · 22m

This episode began with a question brought to me by an investment manager of Indian origin: what do you actually owe the racial, cultural, religious, or social group you happened to be born into?

The immediate spark was the phrase “race traitor.” But the problem is much broader.

Families, cultures, religions, political movements and communities can sometimes move from:

“This is who we are”

to:

“Therefore, this is who you are allowed to be.”

So what do you do when that happens?

I use a practical six-step test:

1. Identify the exact claim.

What are you supposedly required to do?

2. Ask where…