Book Review: Caste, The Origins of Our Discontents a Must Read
By Ray Barry
Several best-selling books have appeared recently which address systemic racism and are helping fuel a national conversation. One of these is Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and lecturer. As I write this it has been on the New York Times best seller list for 39 weeks, and likely to be there a bit longer. Her previous book The Warm of Other Suns is on the New York Times list of the Best Non-Fiction of All Time.
In Caste Wilkerson reframes the dialog, she looks at racism past and present through the lens of a caste system. To drive home her assertion that we indeed have a caste system in America she compares and contrasts America to India and Nazi Germany. Looking through this lens, so much of what we see in current events comes into clearer focus: dog whistles, white supremacists, political double speak, vote suppression.
At times the reading is hard. She details some infamous dehumanization, cruelty, violence, and lynching and relates how a caste system allows and encourages such behavior. But the tone of the book is not one of rage or anger. She maintains the analytical distance of a scholar, which adds to the power of her thesis: we have a top caste of whites, a bottom caste of blacks, and in-between castes of Asians and Hispanics.
In Part Three Wilkerson postulates eight pillars of a caste system. Then she proceeds to expound on how they play out in the major caste systems around the world, but particularly in the U.S. To me this is the most important contribution of the book. It is well thought out and researched. It provides the framework on which the validity of her thesis hangs.
One of the most surprising parts of the book is where she describes events in 1930’s Nazi Germany. When the Nazi’s came to power, according to Wilkerson, they wanted to preserve Arian purity by prohibiting the intermarriage with Jews. For successful examples to emulate they looked to the United States and our prohibitions against inter-racial marriage but found them to be too severe.
The book winds up with some examples from her own life and how making a human connection between people of different castes can break them down. It is a glimpse of what it is like to live as a member of the lower caste.
I rate this book a must read, especially for members of the upper caste. As we strive to assure environmental justice, we need to understand the origins of environmental injustice. This book makes an important and compassionate contribution to our understanding.
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