Read this book: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson
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Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Everyone should read this book. It should be required in college, if not high school. It will break your heart. It will, if you are a member of the dominant caste in America, as I partially am, make you take a step back, and examine your complicity in the maintenance of said caste.
"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 ... how America today throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system ... " (front cover). This caste system supports and sustains the dominant white caste, as it suppresses and denigrates the subordinate caste, African Americans. She compares the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, documenting "how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their outcasting of the Jews" (front cover).
I would argue, that in addition to the clean, accessible writing, and the thorough research, the power of the book lies in the personal narratives of those who "experience the insidious undertow of caste [that] is experienced every day," an evil that affects everyone. These stories--tales of ordinary and famous people, tales of brutality and pain--will break your heart.
Read this.
Highly recommended.
View all my reviews
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel WilkersonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Everyone should read this book. It should be required in college, if not high school. It will break your heart. It will, if you are a member of the dominant caste in America, as I partially am, make you take a step back, and examine your complicity in the maintenance of said caste.
"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 ... how America today throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system ... " (front cover). This caste system supports and sustains the dominant white caste, as it suppresses and denigrates the subordinate caste, African Americans. She compares the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, documenting "how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their outcasting of the Jews" (front cover).
I would argue, that in addition to the clean, accessible writing, and the thorough research, the power of the book lies in the personal narratives of those who "experience the insidious undertow of caste [that] is experienced every day," an evil that affects everyone. These stories--tales of ordinary and famous people, tales of brutality and pain--will break your heart.
Read this.
Highly recommended.
View all my reviews
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