Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

by Isabel Wilkerson

The use of inherited physical characteristics to differentiate inner abilities and group value may be the cleverest way that a culture has ever devised to manage and maintain a caste system.

Some other caste systems use metrics so subtle that many outsiders may not be able to tell the difference between the dominant and subordinate groups. But by using physical characteristics to determine who could be slave or free, who was assigned to the bottom or the top, our country consigned a whole group of people to the bottom, based on what they looked like. Thus one's historic place in the hierarchy is visible on sight, at the very first glance.