Name: Caste
Rating: 4.552910052910053 (189 reviews)
ISBN: 9780593396698

Isabel Wilkerson

Robin Miles

The Origins of Our Discontents

Caste

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK - The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions. "An instant American classic."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times "As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power--which groups have it and which do not." In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.

Greg Talbot

“Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” ― James Baldwin We are Indians, firstly and lastly. - B. R. Ambedkar As John Dickerson said in a Slate Political Gabfest podcast, once you frame the longstanding racial injustice as an issue of caste, you can't shake the frame. Wilkerson lays the foundational frame in her preface as our nation being an old house. "Unaddressed, the ruptures and diagonal cracks will not fix themselves" (p.16). The sticky insoluble caste system, a system that belies the foundational texts of nation, limits the potential of Americans because of racialized boundaries enforced by structure and unchallenged assumptions. Examining subjugation of Jews in Nazi Germany or the millenial long caste of subjugation of Dalit Indians, Wilkerson tackles the tribal and inhumane history that has lead us here. Identifying the Jim Crow laws and lynching as the retrenchment of inhumanity against black Americans, Wilkerson identifies just how separate the two Americas were after the Civil war, and perhaps remain. Hard to read at times and emotionally heavy, it's hard to imagine another book that challenges the myth of American sovereignty...when the our cruelty and incivility are visible across the new media. The debasement and criminality of the Trump administration, the clownish prince of bankrupt values and false promises, continues an assault on our countries's promised greatness. Moral rot, opportunism and cowardice, our country's sickness overshadowed its professed greatness. Wilkerson shows what the bridge to the past looks like, and how the parallels to the 1950s or 1880s are not so exaggerated. The failure of leadership has shown itself in our ineffectiveness to respond as one tribe to the coronavirus or to racial injusitce Wilkerson's book is sobering, unsettling, challenging and inspiring. Like many young people that want to be part of building a better America, I think recognizing the underlying structure of caste is critical toward the spiritual reckoning and humanity expressed in the sagacious words of our founding fathers. We have the poets like Baldwin and Wilkerson to guide us, but that inward wrestling is the hard-work we all have to do. And just imagine our faith, our government, our culture once it has acknowledged the shameful past and worked toward equality of opportunity. The post-racial world that many us aspire to live in. On the other side malignant tumor of white supremacy is the freedom of a just world.

""As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power--which groups have it and which do not." In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of America life today"-- Provided by publisher.

Enjoyed is not the right word to describe my experience with this book but it certainly was a page and head turner. Looking at the structure of society in the US as a caste system provided a lot more nuance and intricacy than looking at race relations as a racism issue alone. Wilkerson is a phenomenal writer and this book can be approached by academics and non-academics alike and has plenty of references to further on your reading.  

The first couple of chapters were quite repetitive, but once you push past them the book is worth it 

Jasmine Lawrence

Enjoyed is not the right word to describe my experience with this book but it certainly was a page and head turner. Looking at the structure of society in the US as a caste system provided a lot more nuance and intricacy than looking at race relations as a racism issue alone. Wilkerson is a phenomenal writer and this book can be approached by academics and non-academics alike and has plenty of references to further on your reading.  

The first couple of chapters were quite repetitive, but once you push past them the book is worth it 

very valid points and incredibly insightful, just sickeningly repetitive, making it incredibly hard to get through.

raelynn faye

Timeo Williams

This was an interesting read. The central theme of how caste effects our interactions with others was shown in three distinct examples: The U.S, Nazi Germany, and India. 

Each chapter following the first was loaded with examples and analogies comparing one to the other. Many of the stories portrayed were new to me and brought certain parts of history in a new light. 

Many examples were thought provoking. 


One recommendation I have for the author is to highlight some potential federal and local government initiatives that can be used to solve this problem. None were given. Instead, asking each reader to open up their heart more and connect with African Americans was the prime solution given. Those in the highest caste were asked to volunteer and be a part of the NAACP and to help speak for those lower.

John Manoogian III

Magisterial. Recommended.

1. Exhaustively and vividly details the past and present injustices visited upon black Americans, and by way of second-order effects, all Americans.

2. Uses the much older Indian caste system as a parallel example of a fixed, immutable, heritable, “divinely ordained”, violent, terrorizing system of power striation, exclusion, economic, spiritual, and political oppression that mirrors the American legacy of slavery in ways that will unsettle many Americans.

3. Presents comparisons between Nazi eugenics and the southern slave trade and its downstream effects on both descendants of slavery and on American society as a whole. Offers examples where the Nazis used the American slavers’ rules and laws as templates for the Nazi Holocaust, and in at least one instance, looked at the American rules for oppression as TOO STRONG, the Nazis instead choosing a more “inclusive” definition of Aryan than the American slavers’ “one drop” rule.

4. Reframes and integrates common mental models about radicalized injustice in America. The author very thoroughly paints a picture of America’s racialized caste system as being (only) incidentally about “race”, but rather more fundamentally grounded in divide-and-conquer power consolidation processes — deliberate systems of economic control that evolved repeatedly in order to maintain their efficiency through different means. 

5. Offers comparisons between the German model of reconciliation — destruction and paving over of Nazi monuments or historic sites, the construction of highly visible monuments in high traffic areas, reparations — to the relatively tepid American reconciliation and apologia for slavery — to the ongoing Indian caste struggles of the Dalits (often called “The Untouchables”).

Definitely a hearty, and emotionally heavy, read. Some people are born to write — a certain subject, focus, book; and the author is one such example. Powerful, well reasoned, deeply thorough, thought provoking, inspiring, unsettling, and emotional. 

Good books to read after this one would be DYING OF WHITENESS, THE CONDEMNATION OF BLACKNESS, and THE SUM OF US.

Erin Darlyn

This book made me weep. It is well-researched, poignant, thought-provoking, gut-wrenching and eye-opening, and I commend Ms. Wilkerson for completing the monumental task of writing it. I learned a lot. Every American needs to read it.

Desire JoRay

This is a book that everyone should have to read. The contrast between how the United States handles our horrible history compared to Germany is infuriating and heartbreaking.

Michael Springer

Things I'd like to remember, but will probably forget every time they'd be a useful point to bring up in a conversation: 

1. Affirmative Action has always existed in the USA, but it has only been called Affirmative Action when it benefits minorities. In recent years, redlining has gotten a lot of attention, and this is an obvious example. Bank lending practices much more recently have also continued this trend of ensuring that Black families are fighting an uphill battle for the exact same things White families can get cheaper and more easily. 

Another example Wilkerson points out is the New Deal itself, which at the behest of racist southern lawmakers, did not afford the same benefits to those working in mostly-minority careers, ruling them out from all the benefits of these policies. 

2. Before getting too excited about how great the USA is, remember The Nazis literally studied the USA and its codified approach to racism when developing their party's platform. They found the USA inspiring. Not to mention the fact that, early on, they thought the USA was maybe a bit too extreme for their tastes, and had certain areas they thought we had gone too far. 

3. A caste system by any other name is still a caste system. We have a caste system in the USA. Look at how financially (and sometimes otherwise) insecure White people responded to the Obama presidency. Look at the immediate backlash to "Make America great again" by cracking down on minority groups, and how those message resonated with so many White people, especially men. 

You can try to write racism off as something distinct or separate, but people are afraid they are losing social capital when they see people from certain artificially constructed social groups achieve more success than they have. This can be both racism and also illustrate the caste system in this country.

Keven Wang

Zoe Stricker

(Unsurprisingly) as brilliant as it was well-written. Another piece of required reading from Wilkerson, the best non fiction writer I am aware of.

Ben Jenkins

Maddie

Incredibly well written. Wilkerson’s comparisons to the caste systems in India and WWII Germany provide abundant examples and context to understand the caste system in the US. Should be required reading.

Stephanie Ridiculous

The best kind of history; blended with narrative and information, laced with insight and perspective that we all could stand to hear more of. Wilkerson does a great job of making complex and nuanced topics approachable and revealing, inviting us to see both the bigger picture and our individual involvement. 

I hadn't realized the depths of the caste system in India & comparing it to the US and Nazi Germany put each system in stark relief. This book has pretty solidly shifted the way I conceptualize the US & how I'll frame my country in future discussions and critique. I highly highly recommend this book to all folks in the United States, and particularly to my fellow majority culture relations.

Major content warnings for depictions of abuse, crimes against humanity, torture, the holocaust, slavery. They are handled well, but can be hard to read.

Mariane Ferrantino 

Such an uncomfortable but necessary read. This should be required reading.

Caste The Origins of Our Discontents

Reviews

Highlights