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Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Isabel Wilkerson (Goodreads Author)

4.56 · Rating details · 44,192 ratings · 7,501 reviews

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.

“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 ...more

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Hardcover, 496 pages

Published August 4th 2020 by Random House

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Jan 12, 2021 Roxane rated it it was amazing

The superlatives people use to describe Caste are all accurate. This is an astonishing book with a bold premise—that race in America is a caste system like those in India and Nazi Germany. Well-written, well argued and provocative. Wilkerson made me think and taught me so much. You think you know the history of racism and then a book like this reveals that it’s so much worse than you could have also imagined. Also she quotes me in the book! I dropped it when I saw that. So unexpected. A lil ego ...more

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Sep 05, 2020 Trevor rated it it was amazing

Shelves: race

It is September 2020, we are a couple of months away from seeing just how insane the US actually is. I’m nearly certain that the world’s only superpower is about to re-elect Donald Trump, and I’m not in the least bit certain that the world will survive another 4 years of his lunacy. In my lifetime, each Republican president has been worse than the last and with each I’ve assumed we’d reached rock bottom – but Trump has proven there is no bottom. Nixon, Reagan, Bush I., Bush II – and still nothin It is September 2020, we are a couple of months away from seeing just how insane the US actually is. I’m nearly certain that the world’s only superpower is about to re-elect Donald Trump, and I’m not in the least bit certain that the world will survive another 4 years of his lunacy. In my lifetime, each Republican president has been worse than the last and with each I’ve assumed we’d reached rock bottom – but Trump has proven there is no bottom. Nixon, Reagan, Bush I., Bush II – and still nothing prepared me for the last four years. You might say that his latest gaff (today he called soldiers who died in WW1 suckers and losers) will sink him – except, we were told that when he said he liked to grab women by the pussy, and then again when he mocked a disabled reporter, then there where all those times when he essentially said he would like to have sex with his daughter, and all of this was before the US elected him the first time. Like I said, there is no bottom. All you can actually say is that when he thought he could shoot someone in the street and not lose a single vote, he grossly underestimated his power. He’s currently killed 188,000 Americans and is going strong.

At one point in this book the author tackles what might seem the inevitable question of US politics – how is it that the Republicans are able to convince so many people to vote against their own best interests? It is very hard for me to explain how those of us not in the US look upon US politics. I guess it is summed up by a cartoon I saw from the start of the Trump reign. It was drawn while Trump was doing everything in his power to remove people’s health insurance, because, you know, Obama. The drawing had what I took to be a dirt-poor white man in a MAGA hat saying something like, “I can’t believe I have to suffer through another day of free healthcare.” It would be hard for me to think of a better example of something that seems so utterly bewildering. That someone would hope that if they or their fellow citizens get sick and do not have health cover, that their government will do nothing at all to help them – and that this would somehow be a good thing. The fundamental inhumanity of it is breathtaking. I’ve mentioned this to Americans on this site before and they say that I wouldn’t understand because I live under socialism… and while, admittedly, it is probably true that even our current crazy right wing government is still to the left of Biden, that is because there is near infinite space to the left of Biden and a wall to the right of him called Trump – Australia is hardly a ‘socialist’ country. All the same, we pay taxes and, bizarrely, I know, we sometimes expect something back from those taxes – something more than rescuing obscenely wealthy businesspeople every decade or so after they’ve crashed the economy. Perhaps if you say freedom three times and salute the flag it will eventually all feel better.

The author of this says that the real reason people vote against their own interests is that they actually don’t vote against their own interests at all. Belonging to the highest caste, even if someone is dirt-poor, is a distinction most white people cannot do without, and so they will vote to retain that distinction, even if it means that they and their families will have to do without healthcare, decent education, social security, clean air, and god only knows what else. As long as they are confirmed in their belief that they are superior to someone else, particularly someone with black skin, they will vote to remain poor, dumb and sick. God bless America.

I once saw an interview where Bush the Second was asked what made America so great and his reply was basically him saying the word freedom twenty times across maybe 25 words in total. Look, I’ve got nothing against freedom, of course, it just isn’t clear to me how having no security of employment, no health care, or education can be confused with being free – you know, ‘I’m free from healthcare’ sounds like a sad joke. Again, the author’s point here is that a concern for ‘freedom’ per se isn’t really what is going on either. Her thesis is that notions of race are only part of the problem faced by the people in the US – and that what is really going on is a kind of colour-coded caste system. I am not entirely sure if saying the US has a caste system does all that much more than saying it is a racist nation already did. I worry that it might make it too easy for people to say ‘Obama’ as if this was some kind of Trump card that proves that, after all, any Black American can aspire to the highest office in the land… You know, Obama had a white mother and so he was ‘Black’ only according to the tainting nature of US blood laws that the author spends so much time in this explaining helped inspire Nazi Germany. The stuff in this discussing the difference between how the US remembers the Confederacy and how Germany remembers Nazi generals is instructive.

Saying that Obama proves the end of racism in the US sounds too much like the sections of the women’s movement that Nancy Fraser criticises in her Feminism for the 99% - ‘feminists’ who are far too concerned with ‘glass ceilings’ getting in the way of us having more female CEOs, as if this was the most obvious solution to female oppression. It isn’t in the least bit obvious that having more female CEOs will do anything to address any of the issues that the majority of women face. Similarly, as we see virtually nightly on our television screens, the horrors faced by Black Americans were not in the least resolved by having a Black American president.

This book does something particularly striking. Throughout it jumps between descriptions of the various tortures, dehumanisations, murders and micro-aggressions that have been inflicted upon Black bodies across the history of the US. But often, when she starts her descriptions, it isn’t at all clear when these atrocities have committed – so that after a while you start to realise that whether the scene being described occurred in 1780 or 1840 or 1950 or 2015 hardly matters. The catalogue of crimes committed have been and remain various chameleon morphings of the same systemic and systematic brutality, enacted to serve the same end – that is, to ensure that all Black people know their ‘place’. These acts of barbarism are committed with such regularity, and are performed (and I mean literally ‘performed’ because they are certainly meant as spectacles that will be viewed by audiences) almost nightly on our television screens. They have nothing to do with law and order, but everything to do with reinforcing the privileged of some alongside the active disenfranchisement of others. I wanted stronger antonym for privilege, but given what is described in this book on what is done so as to stop non-white populations in the US from voting, disenfranchisement will do, even if it does not in itself cover the full extent of the dehumanisation that occurs in the making of the non-privileged.

This book is particularly hard to read. It has done nothing to allay my fears that Trump is about to be re-elected. If anything it has made it feel like a near certainty.

The worst of this horror movie is the two-fold enslavement of the American people, both black and white – where the Black must live their lives second-guessing arbitrary power (‘don’t shoot’, ‘just tell me what you would like me to do, officer, I’m sorry I appear to be frightening you while you hold your gun in my face’) – and where the white people get second-rate everything , but can delight in the knowledge that at least they are not Black. And all while Bezos, Gates and their assorted friends literally laugh all the way to the bank.

If you live in the US, maybe you could consider reading this book sometime before November and then vote (imagine a democracy where voting is optional…). In fact, as Trump himself says, you could vote a couple of times to be sure. Yeah, that would be great.
...more

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Jul 26, 2020 Liz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley, best-of-2020, book-clubs, nonfiction

The Warmth of Other Suns was one of the most important books I’ve read. So, I was really looking forward to Caste. When I previously thought of castes, I thought only of India. Wilkerson posits that the Third Reich was also a caste system. And, of course, the US. In fact, the Nazis used American race laws to design their own system. Unlike the Indian caste system, which had hundreds if not hundreds of separate castes, we basically have two. White and Black, as the poorest white is still above a The Warmth of Other Suns was one of the most important books I’ve read. So, I was really looking forward to Caste. When I previously thought of castes, I thought only of India. Wilkerson posits that the Third Reich was also a caste system. And, of course, the US. In fact, the Nazis used American race laws to design their own system. Unlike the Indian caste system, which had hundreds if not hundreds of separate castes, we basically have two. White and Black, as the poorest white is still above a Black person.
Wilkerson uses the first section to set out her premise. By Part Two, she gets down to the history, spelling out how it came to be and evolved through time. From 1619 until 1865, the slaves were the obvious lowest caste. But even after Emancipation, the country found ways to keep the Blacks in the lowest segment of society. The surprise is how current this book is. She not only covers the Obama presidency, but also the Trump election and his first three years. Even the corona virus is covered.
One of the most important points she makes is that racism is not just the personal hatred by one person, but a systematic abuse, often so deeply ingrained in society as to be oblivious to those in the upper caste. And that the upper caste will do everything to keep their privilege intact.
Wilkerson uses a blend of historical research, individual examples and even personal history to flesh out her theory. Some of the stories are gruesome in the extreme. It’s a hard truth to realize that there’s scant difference between a Nazi labor camp and a southern plantation, both using multiple means to dehumanize the targeted segment . And she rightly points out that brutality actually worsened after the Civil War, as the whites no longer had a monetary investment in the black population. By 1933, there was a black person lynched every four days in the south.
Wilkerson is not shy about talking about current US affairs, post 2016. She makes an important point about the narcissism of a group. “A group whipped into narcissistic fervor is eager to have a leader with whom it can identify...The right kind of leader can inspire a symbiotic connection that supplants logic. The susceptible group sees itself in the narcissistic leader, becomes one with the leader, sees his fortunes and his fate as their own.”
This isn’t an easy book, but it’s extremely important, especially in light of current times. It’s one of my best of 2020. Towards the end of the book, Taylor Branch is quoted as asking, “So the real question would be, if people were given the choice between democracy and whiteness, how many would choose whiteness?”
My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book. ...more

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Aug 05, 2020 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

FAVORITE NON FICTION AUDIOBOOK since Michele Obama’s “Becoming”.

Ten years ago, I read “The Warmth of Other Suns”....The epic story of America’s Great Migration ....
One of the most highly imagined - engrossing - heartfelt books I’ve ever read. There were three main unforgettable characters— their complexities - individual stories - and motivations for what they did - had to do - was soooo well written and experienced from Isabel Wilkerson...I’ve never forgotten the power and impact her book lef ...more

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Aug 18, 2020 Thomas rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, own-electronic, read-on-nook

Liked this book for its blunt discussion of racism and caste discrimination, though at times its analysis felt rather simple or superficial. In terms of positives, I appreciate Caste for its international perspective. A lot of books on race write about race within the context one country, whereas Isabel Wilkerson compares and contrasts the United States, India, and Nazi Germany. Wilkerson does a great job too of showing how many anti-Black racist events within the United States occurred not too Liked this book for its blunt discussion of racism and caste discrimination, though at times its analysis felt rather simple or superficial. In terms of positives, I appreciate Caste for its international perspective. A lot of books on race write about race within the context one country, whereas Isabel Wilkerson compares and contrasts the United States, India, and Nazi Germany. Wilkerson does a great job too of showing how many anti-Black racist events within the United States occurred not too long ago. In part because of the myth of a post-racial society, we often believe that things like slavery and segregation occurred way back when, when in reality those racist events happened relatively recently and still manifest today through mass incarceration and voter suppression. I appreciated Wilkerson’s more provocative or deeper insights, such as how a lot of people in lower castes will try to assimilate and desire proximity to upper castes (yikes), as well as how these issues of caste extend into arenas ranging from disenfranchisement in academia to nastiness in interpersonal interactions.

Sometimes I wanted more from this book’s structure and its recommendations about challenging the caste system. The book’s thesis and argument style feels a bit simplistic in that early on Wilkerson establishes the idea of castes. Then, she describes several racist events, and at the end of each description she comments about how the event exemplifies the presence and maintenance of castes. I desired more innovative, less repetitive writing that delved deeper into the systemic, international mechanisms that perpetuate castes. Goodreads reviewer Chetana raises issue with the simplicity of Wilkerson’s international analysis in her review, which I agree with. The solutions and action steps toward the end of the book felt pretty surface-level too. While radical empathy and recognizing each other’s humanity is great, I’m additionally interested in specific, systemic, actionable ways we can dismantle white supremacy and caste discrimination.

I do think it’s important that the racist events Wilkerson describes in this book are acknowledged, though I’m not sure those more familiar with racism will learn much from reading Caste, aside from some of the introductory international analysis. I’d be curious for writers to include more about how Asian and Latinx individuals fit into the American caste system as well as how intersectionality plays into it. In terms of books about racism and anti-racism, I’d still recommend Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Longe, and So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. ...more

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Jun 01, 2020 David Wineberg rated it it was amazing

Americans don’t think in these terms, but Isabel Wilkerson points out in no uncertain terms that the country is running a caste system, remarkably and sadly just like India’s. In India, there are four varnas and numerous, maybe thousands of subdivisions between them. Each one is a caste with strict rules of life, conduct, liberty and employment. In the US, there is the dominant caste and the subordinate caste. In between, there are various subcastes for various colors and tribes, but at the very ...more

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Jan 28, 2021 Yun rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Those in the dominant caste who found themselves lagging behind those seen as inherently inferior potentially faced an epic existential crisis. To stand on the same rung as those perceived to be of a lower caste is seen as lowering one's status. In the zero-sum stakes of a caste system upheld by perceived scarcity, if a lower-caste person goes up a rung, an upper-caste person comes down. The elevation of others amounts to a demotion of oneself, thus equality feels like a demotion.

Coming acro

Those in the dominant caste who found themselves lagging behind those seen as inherently inferior potentially faced an epic existential crisis. To stand on the same rung as those perceived to be of a lower caste is seen as lowering one's status. In the zero-sum stakes of a caste system upheld by perceived scarcity, if a lower-caste person goes up a rung, an upper-caste person comes down. The elevation of others amounts to a demotion of oneself, thus equality feels like a demotion.

Coming across the passage above was a eureka moment, a lightning strike going off in my head. It immediately made me think of the now-famous quote that showed up around the time of Trump: "Equal rights for others does not mean less rights for you. It's not pie." I had puzzled over its sentiment for so long, why it was that a significant portion of the American population did not seem to agree with this obvious fact. And the paragraph above, along with this entire book, has finally given me the answer, a comprehensive explanation for all that has confused me for so long.

Going into Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, I had never thought about racism as a form of a caste system. Yet, the book makes an articulate and thoughtful argument for why one is really a manifestation of the other. It refers to India's famous caste system to explain America's racial structure, but it also spends a good amount of time comparing them to Nazi Germany. Through it all, it provided answers to so many discrepancies that racism alone could never quite fully account for.

This book is unflinching in its analysis and chilling in its comparisons. To see racism in America as being equal to, or even at times worse than, the Nazi Germany's treatment of Jews, is horrifying and eye-opening. For example, in one of the passages around the formation of the Nuremberg Laws, the book talks about how the Germans learned from the Americans. They actually studied U.S.' segregation laws and were impressed with their ability to keep black citizens powerless, all within a legal framework.

The book doesn't just talk about history, but also what is happening today. In particular, it addresses the backlash that formed following Obama's election to the highest office in the land, the seemingly confounding actions that Trump supporters took in voting against their own self-interest, and the fanatical fever of white and Confederate pride that have overtaken so many citizens and towns.

One of the unintended side effects of this book is that it helped me understand my Chinese heritage and culture. There were so many verbal and nonverbal cues I had picked up throughout my childhood, which had shaped me into the quiet and passive person I had been in my early adult years. That, combined with the personality differences I had seen among my Chinese peers, all seem to tie into Chinese's implicit caste system of favoring sons over daughters. Even though there is nothing about China in this book, everything that is said about the psychological effects of a caste system can still apply (though to a much lesser degree).

I almost didn't finish this book, though. For all of its insightful breakthroughs, I almost dropped it because I found the beginning chapters to be dull, indulgent, and flowery. It spent so long telling me what the book will be about instead of just getting on with it. It was full of metaphors for what racism is, like it's an old house, or a virus, or a play. And each metaphor is stretched to its limits, filled with pages and pages of comparisons. It also came across as humblebragging, with the author boasting of her popularity at conferences. Looking back, it felt so odd, almost like this beginning part is a different book written by someone else altogether. It wasn't until the middle of chapter 4 that the book finally starts to become relevant. If you are considering this book, do try to power through the initial muddling pages to get to the rest of this powerful and worthwhile book.

We cannot hope to bridge the divide that has so fractured this country if one side cannot understand the other. So for me, this book is of the upmost importance. It has done more for my understanding of US race relations than any other book I have read. Looking at race through the lens of a caste system is the only explanation I've come across that is both logical and comprehensive. ...more

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Aug 07, 2020 Stetson rated it did not like it

Shelves: non-fiction, politics, sociology, social-commentary

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, makes the case that America is a caste system analogous to that of India's but organized on the basis of race. She strongly implies that the 2016 Presidential Election was somehow evidence for this claim and then outlines what she posits are the features of the American caste system (8 pillars of caste):

Wilkerson's 8 Pillars of Caste:
1) Divine Will and The Laws of Nature
2) Heritability
3) Endogamy a Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, makes the case that America is a caste system analogous to that of India's but organized on the basis of race. She strongly implies that the 2016 Presidential Election was somehow evidence for this claim and then outlines what she posits are the features of the American caste system (8 pillars of caste):

Wilkerson's 8 Pillars of Caste:
1) Divine Will and The Laws of Nature
2) Heritability
3) Endogamy and the control of marriage and mating
4) Purity vs pollution
5) Occupational hierarchy
6) Dehumanization and Stigma
7) Terror as enforcement, cruelty as a means of control
8) Inherent superiority vs inherent inferiority

Wilkerson's thesis is ostensibly ridiculous as a description of contemporary America, which is actually organized as a hierarchy of competence where competence is roughly determined by free market forces (any serious discussion of political economy is strikingly absent from Caste), a meritocracy in other words. Wilkerson's claims are also reckless, especially given the media attention given to her work (i.e. Oprah's recommendation). This is not a work that is seeking to achieve the racial reconciliation and harmony of a post-racial America where all races and creeds can cash the promissory note of the American founding and the American dream. It wallows in the racial sins and misery of America's past (slavery, lynching, and Jim Crow) and labels those evils as America's essence rather than the chronic disease that America has always aspired to eliminate.

I would be more inclined to take her arguments seriously if she didn't assiduously avoid all the aspects of American life that plainly contradict her or at least mitigate against such a stark perspective. For instance, Wilkerson completely ignores Asian American minorities in her book. She fails to address why in a caste system organized by race with "whiteness" as the dominant identity that Asian Americans are the most educated, wealthiest ethnic group. Of course black/African Americans historically suffered much deeper, more severe iniquities than Asian Americans, but her thesis is predicated on the claim that society is systemically organized to ensure dominant status for white Americans. It's just sloppy to have such a glaring omission, a white elephant of sorts that lurks behind every line. Moreover, Wilkerson's seeming aversion to sociological and economic data is evidenced as she opts for the telling of emotive anecdotes of racial iniquities. Wilkerson is a moving writer; however, the lack of rigor, specificity, data, and analysis belie her true intentions, which are those of an activist rather than a scholar (activists don't have time for pesky facts or to dissect a delicate, hot-button topic in a balanced, dispassionate fashion).

There were some aspects of Wilkerson's discussions of race that I thought were accurate. For instance, she does point out that there is no biological (i.e. genetic) definition of race, making it decidedly a social invention. I think this is an important insight, but Wilkerson does not follow this understanding through to its conclusion. Given the harm caused by the arbitrary use of skin color as a historical system of oppression and disenfranchisement, we should aim for a future where skin color is no longer a meaningful measure (a color-blind egalitarian society where one's merit entirely determines one's place in the social hierarchy). Despite Wilkerson's vagueness on how this supposed American racial caste system can be remedied, it is clear that this is not the vision she has for America's future or even believes that such a future is possible.

I could belabor my critique, but I think a recommendation to readers interested in this topic would be better. Political Tribes by Amy Chua, although not as directly engaged on the issue of race, is still far superior in its discussion of similar issues, a balanced, reasonable analysis of the tribalism in contemporary American society. ...more

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Joy I haven’t read the book but what I do know from my own life experience is that I personally have suffered. Born into a poor Jewish family, in which my I haven’t read the book but what I do know from my own life experience is that I personally have suffered. Born into a poor Jewish family, in which my mother was ill with cancer from the time of my birth and my father, although trained as a pharmacist, had no license in New York, and he suffered from depression. He was also a wonderful musician and played violin. There were 6 of us in a one bedroom apartment. Things were always very bad. I didn’t have but 2 outfits which at 6 years old, I washed and ironed myself. I experienced a lot of prejudice and was called “Christ Killer” and was made fun of because my shoes had holes on the bottom. I had a very sad life and no childhood or toys. It took me to my late 20’s to finally in a chance meeting, be told that there was a program at Columbia General Studies, that accepted poor and disadvantaged people and through a variety of programs created during the Johnson era, paid one’s education. This was the HEOP (Higher Education Opportunity Program) which still exists but has been severely cut. I now have 2 master’s degrees, one in social work from Columbia and the other from CCNY in creative writing. I am now retired (mostly) from my social work career.
I am horrified by what I see in government- the recent attack and potential overthrow of our capital and what I see in our daily lives around us in differences in how people are treated. How can anyone lean in someone’s neck until they’re dead. And this is not an isolated incident. I guess my point is - our current way if governing is dependent on money. People get put in office by how much money they raise and people in power can pretty much get away with anything. Instead of arguing the merits of this particular book or the failings to get each point right, we need to think ahead for our children and their children, that if things continue along this road, the earth will be inhabitable. Our Native Americans were almost completely wiped out and now we want to take even their clean water rights from them. The wealthy gave enough money for more than 10 generations into the future and the normal working class persons pay more in taxes than the wealthy. If there are no changes and healing - we are headed for disaster. I’m just so sad for all the wrongs. In the 30’s and 40’s this country was not trillions in debt to China. Something is wrong and it’s getting worse. ...more
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Stetson Joy wrote: "I haven’t read the book but what I do know from my own life experience is that I personally have suffered. Born into a poor Jewish family, ...more
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Dec 17, 2020 Carol rated it liked it

Shelves: politics, civil-rights-social-justice, books-i-own, history, z-2020-read-women-challenge, diaspora, non-fiction, z-2020-q4-nonfiction-1800

I'm of two minds on Caste. On the one hand, it is a must-read book for anyone with the slightest interest in understanding the Black experience in the US. Its reach is so broad that having read it is table stakes for any cross-racial conversation on point. If you're white and serious about expanding your meaningful relationships with Black individuals, you particularly need to read it, along with The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Between the World and Me and a co ...more

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Aug 26, 2020 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it

Shelves: nfr-2020

Impeccably written, extensively researched, this book couldn't be more timely. Systemic rascism, though that word is not used, rather Wilkerson argues it is in fact a caste system, a system that became embedded with the first colonials. She uses comparisons of the caste system in India and it's treatment of the undesirables, as well as Nazi Germany and its treatment of the Jews.

What makes this so poignant is the stories of individuals, and the effects in people trapped within these systems. Sys ...more

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Nov 30, 2020 Beata rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

One of the most important books of this year, tackling the issue of race, caste, class and prejudice, giving insight into how a caste society is built, how it functions and how it shapes an individual.
For me it was eye-opening and mind-blowing at times, a reading experience that greatly appreciated.
A big thank-you to Isabel Wilkerson, Penguin Press UK, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*

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Sep 18, 2020 Libby rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2020, published-in-2020, social-injustice, political, history, slavery

This may be the most important book I read this year. It’s timely, well researched, and well written. Non-fiction is not my primary reading material, but I found myself engaged and easily turning the pages. Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of another book, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration posits that African Americans are on the lowest rung of a caste system in American. In a systematic revelation of facts, Wilkerson shines a searing light on t This may be the most important book I read this year. It’s timely, well researched, and well written. Non-fiction is not my primary reading material, but I found myself engaged and easily turning the pages. Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of another book, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration posits that African Americans are on the lowest rung of a caste system in American. In a systematic revelation of facts, Wilkerson shines a searing light on the history of enslavement in the South and compares it to the Third Reich’s treatment of the Jews and India’s caste system. The Jim Crow south continued to perpetuate inequality and worse. It’s a bone-chilling account and a call to personal awakenings of conscience.

Wilkerson writes of silent earthquakes rumbling deep within the earth long before the actual earthquake creates havoc and devastation. She states that “only recently have circumstances forced us, in this current era of human rupture, to search for the unseen stirrings of the human heart, to discover the origins of our discontents.” That is what she probes within these pages.

The eight pillars of caste as outlined by Wilkerson begin with ‘Divine Will and the Laws of Nature.’ Just as some Christians point to the ‘curse of Ham’ as justification for slavery, so does the ancient Hindu text of India provide for the caste system. It pains me to remember the sermons in my own church when I was growing up...that "integration is an act of communism," a reflection of the ignorance and unjustified fears of the time. I was eight years old when my school became integrated. The other children were just like me, only a different color.

Wilkerson points to the 2016 election as a consequence of a backlash against the presidency of the first African American, Barak Obama. Many people vote against their own self-interests when they perceive that their dominance is threatened. One would think that climate change, science, and coronavirus would be at the forefront of everyone’s agenda, seeing as how all those things have to do with the survival of humanity, but that is not the case. The protection of wealth, superiority, and entitlement seem to be just as valid these days.

Wilkerson compares how Germany faced the aftermath of what happened there with how American continues to subjugate blacks and other minorities. She imagines what life would be like if all people were celebrated, if everyone was allowed to reach his/her full potential. Noam Chomsky, celebrated linguist, scholar, and political activist recognizes the Black Lives Matters movement as a reason for hope and “the biggest social movement in American history with support beyond anything that’s ever been registered in the past.” (1)

I don’t believe I have ever read anything so thorough or revelatory about what it means to be black in America.

(1) https://daily.jstor.org/noam-chomsky-... ...more

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Aug 15, 2020 Michael Spikes rated it it was ok

To start, I have to say that I think this book deserves a 4-star rating as a detailed narrative of the actions of certain individuals who were interested in maintaining a caste style hierarchy of others based on skin color. However, I found it a bit short-sighted and was personally disappointed in this work.

That said, as an individual reader, I think I was just expecting something different than what this book actually is, and that led me to the 2-star rating.

I eagerly awaited the publication To start, I have to say that I think this book deserves a 4-star rating as a detailed narrative of the actions of certain individuals who were interested in maintaining a caste style hierarchy of others based on skin color. However, I found it a bit short-sighted and was personally disappointed in this work.

That said, as an individual reader, I think I was just expecting something different than what this book actually is, and that led me to the 2-star rating.

I eagerly awaited the publication of this book, hoping that it would be a deeply researched tome that would provide illumination for race relations in the United States. Seeing the title of "Caste" had me believe that this discussion would go beyond the binary frames that usually are associated with discourses on racism by using the lens of caste hierarchy. As the book went on, however, I found the intricate retelling of past atrocities against individual African Americans--which most of the book is dedicated to--akin to a rehashing of past work. Instead of establishing a new frame using caste, I found that on many occasions, the phrases of "dominant caste" and "subordinate caste" were just replacements for the words "white people" and "black people", and I didn't get the sense that the investigation was meant to go beyond that. Discussions of India's and the Nazi's caste systems were scant, and never really were raised to the same level of comparison as those of America's Jim Crow and Antebellum south.

To be clear, this isn't to say that these stories aren't significant to be reminded of, especially during our current moment. But it provides readers with more of an explanation of WHAT happened to certain individuals at a very particular time, rather than providing a fuller picture of the WHY these things happen, and the deeper implications of those actions both on the victims and the aggressors. That's where this book didn't reach the expectations that I had for it -- which admittedly, may have been misplaced.

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Sep 13, 2020 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020-favorites, audiobook

A masterful, infuriating, heartbreaking book! Wilkinson argues (and illustrates beautifully with dozens of stories) that we need to go beyond a racial reckoning and examine the structure underneath: “caste is the bones, race the skin.” I believe my understanding of US History has deepened more from Isabel Wilkerson’s two brilliant, penetrating books than all the other texts I have read in the last several decades combined.

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Aug 05, 2020 Oscreads rated it it was amazing

Last night I attended an event that was held by The New York Public Library which hosted a conversation with Isabel Wilkerson to talk about her newest book
“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent.” Already finished with her book, I attended this event to help me group up my finals thoughts. During the event Wilkerson talks about how she doesn’t see this book as an argument but more as an “invitation to seeing ourselves differently than we have before and the idea that we can have new language to h Last night I attended an event that was held by The New York Public Library which hosted a conversation with Isabel Wilkerson to talk about her newest book
“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent.” Already finished with her book, I attended this event to help me group up my finals thoughts. During the event Wilkerson talks about how she doesn’t see this book as an argument but more as an “invitation to seeing ourselves differently than we have before and the idea that we can have new language to help us see ourselves differently.” This is exactly what Wilkerson is doing with her newest book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent.” Right from the first page, you are invited into this extraordinary book that challenges the reader to think differently and to see the world and most importantly this country through this new lens.

Not knowing what caste was before, I came into this book blindly which can be a sort of a challenge because you are putting your trust in the writer way before you open the book. However, Wilkerson embraces the blind reader by defining this term and making sure that you understand this phenomenon that is embedded in American history to which has left this residue that is affecting American society even today. Wilkerson defines this caste system as, “an artificial construction, a fixed and embedded ranking of human value that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the presumed inferiority of other groups on the basis of ancestry and often immutable traits.” Wilkerson doesn’t stop there though to make sure you know what this term is and what it has done. She uses these smart metaphors that only help the reader comprehend this term and its entirety. “Caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance.”

While this is a complicated topic, Wilkerson guides you through American history covering how far this casteism system has been apart of this nation. From 1619 to slavery, from reconstruction to Jim Crow, from the civil rights movement to the election of President Obama and later on the Cheeto. Wilkerson welcomes you to see that all along this country has been dealing with a casteism problem similar to what India and Germany have gone through. She wants us, humanity, to see this country and the world in this new way which if we do can possibly save us.

“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent” by Isabel Wilkerson is a force of a book that will help those who seek clarity about the race relations in America find some sort of understanding. While I made my way through this book I couldn’t help tell those around me about the stunning points that Wilkerson brought up. There were times where my jaw dropped to the floor and times where my heart wanted to jump out of my chest. I will say that if you are already familiar with this history this book can feel sort of repetitive but I like to think that it must have been necessary for Wilkerson to guide one through this history again through this new lens in order to take on this new language. Overall, this book is one that will be next to me forever. It’s an incredible document and I applaud Wilkerson for gifting us with such a text.

Thank you Penguin Random House for the Netgalley widget #partner ...more

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Aug 17, 2020 Chetana rated it liked it

I have mixed feelings about this book. Isabel Wilkerson is a great writer and her book Warmth of Other Suns was a masterpiece but this book felt like it had been written by an amateur. The thesis on race and caste is compelling but there’s a lot of simplistic theorization and the comparisons she makes between the US, India and Germany are superficial and at points, just plain dubious (e.g. she notes that Dalits in India were conquered by upper-caste Aryans who traveled from the North despite the ...more

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Aug 04, 2020 Traci at The Stacks rated it liked it

CASTE was easily one of my most anticipated reads of 2020. I am known to have prosthelytized for THE WARMTH OF OTHER SONS, a book that I often say changed my life and the way I see myself in this world. Needless to say CASTE had some pretty big shoes to fill. Overall I enjoyed reading the book, but it didn’t live up to my astronomical expectations. I still think you should read CASTE. I still think it is a very good book.
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What I loved was Wilkerson’s restructuring of racism into the framework o ...more

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Oct 04, 2020 Matt rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Matt by: Rae

Shelves: audiobook, buddy-read, us-election-2020-prep

I have decided to embark on a mission to read a number of books on subjects that will be of great importance to the upcoming 2020 US Presidential Election. Many of these will focus on actors intricately involved in the process, in hopes that I can understand them better and, perhaps, educate others with the power to cast a ballot. I am, as always, open to serious recommendations from anyone who has a book I might like to include in the process.

This is Book #16 in my 2020 US Election Preparation ...more

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Aug 22, 2020 thewanderingjew rated it did not like it

Caste, Isabel Wilkerson, author, Robin Miles, narrator
Where do I begin? I will begin at the beginning. In the first few pages of the book, “Caste” seems like an even handed explanation of society’s ills. When it began to describe the demands of the supremacists and the behavior of the protesters, I was sure she was describing the bullying democrats. After all, demanding that we have a woman of color as the Vice Presidential nominee is an example of the worst kind of supremacy and blackmail. I th Caste, Isabel Wilkerson, author, Robin Miles, narrator
Where do I begin? I will begin at the beginning. In the first few pages of the book, “Caste” seems like an even handed explanation of society’s ills. When it began to describe the demands of the supremacists and the behavior of the protesters, I was sure she was describing the bullying democrats. After all, demanding that we have a woman of color as the Vice Presidential nominee is an example of the worst kind of supremacy and blackmail. I thought of the chaos in the streets of Portland, Oregon, Seattle, and Washington, of the wanton murders in Chicago, Illinois. I thought, surely she must be condemning the violence, but no, she was excusing it by justifying it because of what she insists is the existence of a caste system in America.
The book quickly descends into what it was intended to be a piece of propaganda used to trash the Republicans, and those associated with them, as it fawns over the Progressives and their ideas for America, which will likely take them down the path of Venezuela. The book begins and ends in a hate-fest directed toward President Trump, the Republican point of view, and condemns, overtly or subtly, anything and anyone that disagrees with any of the “pillars” she presents, as sure signs of our caste system’s development, and as proof that Republicans and white people in general, especially those who supported Trump, view themselves as the dominant class and are the enemies of those they believe are beneath them in value.
The author cherry picks facts, and even misrepresents others, in order to support her thesis about the caste system she creates in the book. She insists that race is not the problem, but it is the idea that one group is superior to another that causes the problem. She advances the idea that her group is actually deserving of that honor, even as she trashes everyone else. She spoon feeds us her opinions as proven doctrine and condemns those who disagree with her premises as automatically racist or part of the dominant caste with their arrogant views about their own superiority. I found her view of her own superiority, in every example she provided, about her own life and experiences, to be over generalized and exaggerated. Many instances were interpreted by her, as racist, but didn’t really have to be. They could merely have been misunderstandings on the part of all involved. She attributes all offenses, no matter how rare, to the idea of a caste system existing in this country, similar to that of India, which I found absurd. India is a third world country and we are the leaders of the world.
Slavery was and will always be evil; there is no doubt about that. I believe that society has to move on, but apparently, she disagrees. I believe if we don’t, we remain stuck with our hate and our anger and never recover. We fought a war to end slavery. The horrendous concept of owning individuals was defeated, although in the Democrat society of the south, it lingered. So why does the author blame the right and not the left? In addition, the fact that they, and the country were unprepared for how their future would unfold,, does not prove that there is a caste system. It proves that the plan to take the slave population forward was wanting or given little thought. Eradicating the class and the color bias would be, and still is, difficult, but this book, pretending to be a well researched document, but which is based on anecdotes, will defeat any possibility of unity among people of different backgrounds if it is to be believed. This author cherry picks her evidence, regardless of whether or not that evidence accurately represents the state of affairs that exists in the United States. Comparing America to a third world country that justifies the caste system as a religion is dishonest and disingenuous, at best.
The author has decided that if she is mistreated at an airport, by a repairman, at a restaurant, it is always because of this caste system, where the dominant class looks down on the less important class. She gives no credence to the times she is afforded more respect than others because of her accomplishments, or to the fact that she is respected far more often than the few times she is insulted. Who among us, white, black, red, yellow or any color, etc. or religion, has not been insulted at one time or another? Is that a result of a caste system or of the actions of some stupid people? I prefer to think that there are stupid people everywhere, and unless the insult is egregious, ignore it. As a Jew, I have been subjected to many insults and many lost opportunities, so I work harder to accomplish my goals. Not every insult is a crime or the result of white privilege or Brahmin privilege, but for sure, she is demanding that people of color now have that privilege at the expense of others. She is not making the case for equality and the end of what she calls the caste system, she is demanding that we forgive the travesties committed by those of color because it is not their fault, and so we need to afford them privileges. She even goes so far as to assign the responsibility of the earlier deaths of Mexicans, immigrants, and people of color to the white dominant class, which somehow makes them sick, causing them to develop their illnesses and die.
The book’s message is contrived. She believes that the behavior of those who break the law is the fault of the privileged that prey upon them. She almost justifies their lawlessness by insisting that it is the caste system and white supremacy which forces them to commit crimes. Injustice makes them do it. Is there no personal responsibility for one’s behavior after decades of progress, even after the election of what was called the “first black President”, even after a body of government becomes well represented by people of color, a body represented by far more than their percentages in modern society?
The author’s narrative soon begins to seem condescending and so does the tone of the narrator reading the book to her listeners. It is almost pompous in the assumption that she is correct and anyone who disagrees is, therefore, by her definition, a racist who believes in the caste system and their own superiority. Disagree and you are guilty. She does not believe that race divides us, but rather she seems to believe that it is the idea that one group is endowed with the right to reign superior over another. She believes the idea of caste immutable. That would be fine if her message did not infer that the tables should be reversed, which kind of reinforces what she calls the caste system, but for a different group of people.
By searching for facts to prove her theory, she disregards the mountain of facts that disprove it. How can you ignore the election of Barack Obama with a straight face and accuse the country of suffering from this caste issue? She presents her view and counts on the reader to accept it as gospel. After all, even Oprah Winfrey recommends this book and declares it should be a classic used in the classroom. Is Oprah the credible authority on this when she is one of the richest females in the world? This book will not unite us, but will actually further the cause of the current protests and disruptions of society that have become commonplace. It is unforgiving and unrelenting in its accusations of systemic mistreatment. If I do not believe that to be true, I am automatically part of the privileged caste, according to Wilkerson.
In our society, we have a black caucus, a black TV network, safe spaces for people of color, and other examples of special treatment for certain segments of society, so why is that not a symptom of the caste society that perpetuates it? Aren’t the tables being turned when a demand is made to only have a female, person of color as the Vice Presidential candidate of the Democrats? Does that mean the caste system allows for the interchange of positions, for those that feel they are being treated as “less than” to now make demands that treat others as “less than”? Does that mean she does not truly advocate for the elimination of the system, but just means to replace those in charge of the system? Although America has rewarded this author with success and renown, she seems unhappy with the country. Throughout the first half of the book, she cites nothing positive about this country, nothing that indicates any progress toward overcoming this “supposed” caste system. She simply seems hell-bent on proving it exists and will bridge no opposition to her theory. I am judged by her to be a white supremacist by virtue of the fact that I lucked out with the color of my skin.
I had serious doubts about my ability to complete the book. I soldiered on, because although she writes with a superior air of intellect, and seems unaware of any wrongdoing or negative behavior by her brethren, unless she believes it is justified by how they have been treated, I had hoped to eventually see some sign of positive message rather than one that sought to justify or trade one supremacist group’s position for another’s. However, that never happened, in fact, it got worse as she once again trashed Trump at the end and made her true purpose of propaganda, more evident.
This author blames everything on Trump, using the popular talking points. Trump caused the violence we witness. Trump caused the pandemic. The Corona Virus is a disease sent round the world by China, a disease we were unprepared for because of previous administrations which left us unprepared. This author gives no credit to America for elevating Obama to the highest office, but rather says that the minorities elected him. She supports the removal of statues and the rewriting of history to wipe out the parts she doesn’t like. She supports Black Lives Matter although the effort has descended into chaos and bullying complete with violence and ancillary organizations corrupting their message. She doesn’t believe in ID’s for voting, although she cannot travel without one. She is against the electoral college and favors majority rule. According to Wilkerson, immigrants and people of color, the descendants of slaves, do not live as long as whites because white supremacy makes them ill. Using examples of education success, happiness ranking, and other ideas, without taking the size of population or demographics into consideration, she declares we are woefully lacking. If H1N1 had been as bad as the Corona Virus (and it was lucky for Obama that it wasn’t), millions, not thousands would have died. Honesty is not the strongest point of the book.
When she pointed to the fact that Einstein compared the racism in America to the Holocaust in Germany, she lost me completely. I absolutely disagree with that assessment and point to it as proof of her lack of credibility regarding the premise of this book. She alters and manipulates information without proper documentation. She wants a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with the reality of the Caste System. Isn’t that just what the country needs, another investigation? Perhaps it is what she needs to assess her book appropriately and fairly.

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Nov 12, 2020 Barbara rated it it was amazing

In this important and beautifully written book, Isabelle Wilkerson attributes the racial problems in this country to an invisible caste system. Similar to India's caste system, as well as that used by the Third Reich in Nazi Germany, it is a method of retaining social order by raising one designated group above another; it is the desire to preserve the purity of the blood of the ruling class. Wilkerson's carefully researched treatise leaves no doubt in this reader's mind that a caste system does In this important and beautifully written book, Isabelle Wilkerson attributes the racial problems in this country to an invisible caste system. Similar to India's caste system, as well as that used by the Third Reich in Nazi Germany, it is a method of retaining social order by raising one designated group above another; it is the desire to preserve the purity of the blood of the ruling class. Wilkerson's carefully researched treatise leaves no doubt in this reader's mind that a caste system does indeed exist in this country. Whether it is the liberal's deeply embedded cultural racism or the overt actions of white supremacists, it is apparent. "It is like a cancer that goes into remission only to return when the immune system of the body politic is weakened."

Racism in this country is not new, nor did it begin with the Civil War or during the Jim Crow years. Wilkerson informs us that Ben Franklin was concerned with the influx of Germans into Pennsylvania twenty-five years before the Revolution. He believed they would Germanize the Anglicans and not accept their language and culture. Through waves of immigration this same fear has been seen: the Italians, the Japanese, the Muslims have all been feared and at times maligned. Most groups have completely assimilated, dispelling those worries. However, this assimilation and acceptance has not happened with African Americans. The author believes the reason is the history of slavery - once the master always the master. She also makes the point that people have an easier time accepting those who look like them.

Is the situation hopeless? Is it just human nature to want to feel superior to someone or some group, to think your religion, your ethnicity, your gender or sexual orientation is better? Wilkerson remains optimistic, more so than I am. There is work to be done."It is not the despot but the people's inactions that keep the mechanisms of caste going." She quotes Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an anti-Nazi dissent and theologian who was murdered by the Nazis. "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." We, as a nation, need to eliminate the "them and us", the"good guys vs. the bad guys"- the denial of shared humanity.

Caste is one of the most powerful and relevant books I have ever read. As dire as the current racial situation is, we all can do our part to alleviate it, but first we must admit it does exist.

"A caste system persists in part because we, each and every one of us, allow it to exist - in large and small ways, in our everyday actions, in how we elevate or demean, embrace or exclude, on the basis of the meaning attached to people's physical traits. If enough people buy into the lie of national hierarchy, then it becomes the truth or is assumed to be." ...more

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Dec 30, 2020 Jessaka rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sociology, pyschology, non-fiction, history, politics

It was the 70s. The young woman sat in my history class listening to the professor talk about slavery. Then she said, “They loved being slaves. That is why they were always singing and dancing. We all laughed, but we should have gasped. Our laugh was how we corrected her. There should have been something said and maybe there was, and I have just forgotten. This book has that correction. They sang and they danced because they were forced to do so, and tears would slide down their faces like rain ...more

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Aug 14, 2020 Clif Hostetler added it

Shelves: current-events

A different perspective almost always enhances understanding. Sometimes labeling with a different word can shape-shift a subject into a slightly different perspective revealing additional layers of meaning. I think that’s what Wilkerson has done by using the word “caste” to describe what others have described as structural, institutional, or systemic racism.

The word “racism” alone doesn’t communicate the endemic nature of the problem that is at the core of society’s discontent. The meaning of “ ...more

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Nov 08, 2020 Lucy Langford rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4****

A caste system is an artificial construction, a fixed and embedded ranking of human value that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the presumed inferiority of other groups.

A very interesting read! Here Isabel Wilkerson explores the three main caste systems through history: in India, Nazi Germany and America. Here she analyses the caste systems in place in India and Germany and how these are also applicable to America. She sets about naming the pillars of caste and how they help 4****

A caste system is an artificial construction, a fixed and embedded ranking of human value that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the presumed inferiority of other groups.

A very interesting read! Here Isabel Wilkerson explores the three main caste systems through history: in India, Nazi Germany and America. Here she analyses the caste systems in place in India and Germany and how these are also applicable to America. She sets about naming the pillars of caste and how they help assert the dominant group and make sure the lower caste is kept in place (I found this highly fascinating!).

She uses a blend of social psychology, history and sociology to define and show caste throughout the book- as well as some case studies and her own experience. For example: the caste vs class debate; you can escape your class but not your caste- as seen by Wilkerson herself when she was followed and questioned by DEA; she was the only black businesswoman on a flight, going through an airport when they stopped her, and the silent complicity from white passengers who sat by and were silent- reinforcing the caste system.
How even other people of colour can’t stick up for one another in front of the dominant caste due to the consequences, and again strengthening the caste system.

Some things I was surprised to learn- for example, that Nazi Germany used American segregation laws as their inspiration for gaining power, instilling the same beliefs through media, and concentration camps (I knew about Eugenics), or how people in America would sell body parts, rope and postcards after witnessing/being part of a lynching.

I was interested to read about the caste system as it stood today. Even now the Law of Manu and Christian religion can be used to maintain the caste system (in India and America/Britain respectively). How you can see the caste system operating in America through medical issues and coronavirus. Even today, in India, those of the Dalit caste are still not allowed to walk down the same streets as those from an upper caste, or where a higher caste teacher refused to mark students from a Dalit caste’s tests for fear of “dirtying” herself.

While I could go on about new discoveries I made, or the interesting explanations Wilkerson makes, this review would be far too long. Altogether this makes a fascinating read and makes you draw parallels between the caste systems as well as making the reader (myself) horrified at the crimes/treatment committed against those deemed “lesser”.
My one issue with this book is that it focuses highly on the caste system in America and I think I would’ve liked more exploration into Caste in India and those from the Dalit caste. ...more

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Aug 21, 2020 Kathleen rated it it was amazing

The idea of perceiving America’s deeply ingrained racism as a caste system came to her while conducting her research for her Pulitzer-prize winning The Warmth of Other Suns. In that book she focused on a history of the Great Migration of African Americans moving out of the South. For this book, she proceeded to study the two best known caste systems in the world—India and Nazi Germany. Hence, Caste is not about biology, social history or science, but about structural power. She sees America’s ra ...more

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Dec 27, 2020 Elle rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Elle by: Madison

Shelves: 2020

This has been a year full of anti-racism books, some newly published in 2020 (like this one) and others experiencing a resurgence in the months following the George Floyd protests in the United States. Ones like Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which was a great comprehensive introduction to the history of racism in America, and Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, which walked the reader through the disastrous criminal justice system our c ...more

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Feb 03, 2021 Woman Reading rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction-2021-challenge, nfbc-botm-and-br, 3-and-half-stars-worthwhile-read, read-women-2021-challenge

3.5 ☆

In my introductory sociology course in university, my professor stated that within 15 seconds, people always took note of two things about any persons who crossed their path - their gender and their race. People do this to determine their actions. This is the sole lesson I remember from that class, as interesting as it was.

In Caste, Wilkerson wrote about what Americans do with that information. From her earlier work on her Pulitzer-prize winning The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of 3.5 ☆

In my introductory sociology course in university, my professor stated that within 15 seconds, people always took note of two things about any persons who crossed their path - their gender and their race. People do this to determine their actions. This is the sole lesson I remember from that class, as interesting as it was.

In Caste, Wilkerson wrote about what Americans do with that information. From her earlier work on her Pulitzer-prize winning The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, she realized that her research was really about a caste system in the US, and one which was based upon inherited physical characteristics.

A caste system is an artificial construction, a fixed and embedded ranking of human value that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the presumed inferiority of other groups...

In the American caste system, the signal of rank is what we call race, the division of humans.

"As a social or human division," wrote the political scientist Andrew Hacker of the use of physical traits to form human categories, "it surpasses all others - even gender - in intensity and subordination."

In this book, Wilkerson explored how caste systems originated and chose to compare the social hierarchies in India (the oldest continual system), the US, and in Nazi Germany. She included the latter because they had been inspired by the Jim Crow legislation in the southern US states.

The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not. It is about resources—which caste is seen as worthy of them and which are not, who gets to acquire and control them and who does not. It is about respect, authority, and assumptions of competence—who is accorded these and who is not.

Given my long-term interest in the social sciences, this idea of a caste in US is far from shocking and hardly novel. I already knew that Nazi Germany had adopted the eugenics practice established by 32 US states which forced the sterilization of the mentally ill. I still learned some new things. It was rather shameful just how much inspiration Nazi Germany received as they copied verbatim laws from the US South that they'd use to target people of Jewish belief and ancestry. What's interesting is how differently these two nations have dealt with their ugly histories. Germany acknowledged theirs while many in the US are still in denial.

The anthropologist Ashley Montagu was among the first to argue that race is a human invention, a social construct, not a biological one, and that in seeking to understand the divisions and disparities in the United States, we have typically fallen into the quicksand and mythology of race. “When we speak of the race problem in America,” he wrote in 1942, “what we really mean is the caste system and the problems which that caste system creates in America.

Wilkerson also stated that while she wanted to consider everyone affected by this hierarchy in the US, her book would concentrate on those occupying the polar opposites - those of European ancestry who are the primary beneficiaries contrasted against those at the bottom, African-Americans. I learned more about the African-American experience since a Dutch ship, laden with "cargo" destined for the slave trade, docked in the US in the 1600s. It was not easy to listen to this history. But I'm of the belief that even the ugly parts of history need to come to light if there's any hope of improvement. And yet -

Empathy is no substitute for the experience itself. ...
Radical empathy is not about you and what you think you would do in a situation you have never been in and perhaps never will. It is the kindred connection from a place of deep knowing that opens your spirit to the pain of another as they perceive it. ...
The price of privilege is the moral duty to act when one sees another person treated unfairly.

I believe this is an important topic for Americans to explore, so I'm giving Caste a positive rating. However, Wilkerson wrote with a sledge hammer approach, and I found the content to be repetitive. I don't require three different analogies to be convinced of the same point. I had listened to the audiobook version. While the narrator never overtly sounded angry, I certainly felt Wilkerson's frustration and anger. I dispute neither her anger nor her right to feel it. But I believe that her ire meant that she didn't develop some points as well as she could have. In particular, I felt as though she pitted the African-American experience against the others who weren't of European ancestry, and ignored the atrocities committed against the other "races." African-Americans weren't the only ones who experienced lynching and disenfranchisement in the US. Wilkerson herself had pointed out that this was a long-term strategy that had been used by the dominant caste - to encourage fighting amongst all the ranks lower than them. I've been around enough people of various ancestries to hear Latinx and Asian-Americans voice racist attitudes about African-Americans and vice versa. I've also seen "colorism" within most people groups. Everybody needs to acknowledge and to confront their inherent biases, because I've also seen people work together well and to be friends across the color spectrum. There is hope, small as it might be. ...more

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Nov 11, 2020 Julie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

This is an incredible book and one I will re-read, as there is so much to unpack! I became totally immersed and worked through many thoughts and emotional reactions while I read about caste and how it is used to keep people 'in their place.'

I used the bookmark feature on Overdrive whenever I particularly 'leaned in' to listen to an important truth. Here is what I took away this time and is currently permeating my thoughts:

"Caste is a disease and none of us is immune."

"Combined with bans on immi This is an incredible book and one I will re-read, as there is so much to unpack! I became totally immersed and worked through many thoughts and emotional reactions while I read about caste and how it is used to keep people 'in their place.'

I used the bookmark feature on Overdrive whenever I particularly 'leaned in' to listen to an important truth. Here is what I took away this time and is currently permeating my thoughts:

"Caste is a disease and none of us is immune."

"Combined with bans on immigrants who were not from Europe for much of American history, endogamy laws had the effect of controlled breeding, of curating the population of the United States. This form of social engineering served to maintain the superficial differences upon which the hierarchy was based, "race" ultimately becoming the result of who was officially allowed to procreate with who." This makes sense as an explanation of how caste was engineered. I had previously not given it much thought. The word 'curating' particularly made it hit home for me.

"This was the thievery of caste stealing the time and psychic resources of the marginalized draining energy in an already uphill competition." This spurred me to keep reading even when I felt hopelessly guilty and helpless to effect change. For, "without intervention or reprogramming we act out the script we are handed." If I truly have empathy for all people, reading and understanding about the caste system is essential to overcoming bias and committing to change.

""Nobody could take away from you the this whiteness that made you and your way of life 'superior,'" Lillian Smith wrote. "They could take away your house, your job, your fun; they could steal your wages, keep you from acquiring knowledge; they could tax your vote or cheat you out of it: they could by arousing your anxieties make you impotent, but they could not strip your white skin off of you. It became the poor white's most precious possession. A charm staving off utter dissolution."" I remember reading this and thinking that it went some way to explain how people voted in 2016, especially when combined with the fact that minorities will make up the majority of the US population by 2042.

The first quote I listed reminds us that none of us escapes the negative consequences of caste. Indeed, "even the most privileged of humans in the Western world will join a tragically disfavored caste. If they live long enough they will belong to the last caste of the human cycle that of old age. People who are among the most demeaned of all citizens in the Western World where youth is worshipped to forestall thoughts of death. A caste system spares no-one." ...more

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Aug 15, 2020 Mehrsa rated it really liked it

I loved Warmth of Other Suns and was really really looking forward to this book--I got it and finished it within the first week it came out. Perhaps because my expectations were too high with this one, but I would not put this book anywhere close to the first if we are judging by innovation, style, or novelty. It's a good book and it's beautifully written, but most of the most poignant points were in the NYTimes Magazine article or were summaries of other race and historic research. I was hoping ...more

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Nov 04, 2020 Mara rated it really liked it

Shelves: ebook-owned, recommended-to-me, audio

This is one of those really good books that could have been absolutely amazing with a more focused argument. That said, this book gives incredibly helpful language to describe the racial hierarchy that is the bedrock of the American social order. It is uncomfortable but quite illuminating to see her breakdown the parallels of American chattel slavery and the subsequent legally enforced racial discrimination to the caste system of India and the racial segregation & extermination programs of the T ...more

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Sep 21, 2020 Jean rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

“You know that there are no black people in Africa,” she said...Africans are not black,” she said. “They are Igbo and Yorubu, Ewe, Akan, Ndebele. They are not black. They are just themselves. They are humans on the land. That is how they see themselves, and that is who they are...They don’t become black until they go to America or come to the U.K.,” she said. “It is then that they become black.” (Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, pp134-135)

Isabel Wilkerson describes the origins of the c ...more

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“Radical empathy, on the other hand, means putting in the work to educate oneself and to listen with a humble heart to understand another's experience from their perspective, not as we imagine we would feel. Radical empathy is not about you and what you think you would do in a situation you have never been in and perhaps never will. It is the kindred connection from a place of deep knowing that opens your spirit to the pain of another as they perceive it.

Empathy is no substitute for the experience itself. We don't get to tell a person with a broken leg or a bullet wound that they are not in pain. And people who have hit the caste lottery are not in a position to tell a person who has suffered under the tyranny of caste what is offensive or hurtful or demeaning to those at the bottom. The price of privilege is the moral duty to act when one sees another person treated unfairly. And the least that a person in the dominant caste can do is not make the pain any worse.” — 44 likes

“The price of privilege is the moral duty to act when one sees another person treated unfairly. And the least that a person in the dominant caste can do is not make the pain any worse.” — 38 likes

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