Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

by Isabel Wilkerson

leading the writer Alexis de Tocqueville to observe in 1831: “The prejudice of race appears to be stronger in the states that have abolished slavery than in those where it still exists; and nowhere is it so intolerant as in those states where servitude has never been known.”

Sanctioned as it was by the U.S. government, the caste system had become not simply southern, but American.

“White culture desensitized children to racial violence,” wrote the historian Kristina DuRocher, “so they could perpetuate it themselves one day.”

This creates unsustainable expectations in a culture that proclaims to be egalitarian but was set up for certain people to dominate by birth.

is to say that one of the more disturbing aspects of a caste system, and of the unequal justice it produces, is that it makes for a less safe society, allowing the guilty to shift blame and often to go free.

“The main characteristic of an alpha male wolf is a quiet confidence, quiet self-assurance,”

“Since I have been here, I have always recognized that this is a racist country, and I have made every effort not to lose my accent.”

Three of the officers involved were black, including the driver of the van. This combination of factors allowed society to explain away Gray’s death as surely having nothing to do with race, when in fact it was likely caste at work.

Caste does not explain everything in American life, but no aspect of American life can be fully understood without considering caste and embedded hierarchy.

How dare anyone cause harm to another soul, curtail their life or life’s potential, when our lives are so short to begin with?

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

I feel like this is what DiAngelo is trying to get at in White Fragility, but fails terribly. Wilkerson explains it so much better.

It turns out that everyone benefits when society meets the needs of the disadvantaged.

It is no honor to be tolerated. Every spiritual tradition says love your neighbor as yourself, not tolerate them.