Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. This book proves yet again when fully revealed history is painful. Caste is one of the most powerful books I have ever read.
Isabel is certainly forcing America to grapple with an understanding that our country was founded upon a coded class (caste) structure originating from India.
India’s caste system is based upon ancient Hindu text suggesting Manu, was an all-knowing man. One day he was approached by men asking “Please, Lord, tell us precisely and in the proper order the Laws of all the social classes as well as of those born in between.” So developed a caste system of classes including the highest, untouchable class across India.
Accordingly from this point forward Isabel delivers America’s caste system. Isabel developed a metaphor: America’s caste in the form of an old house that requires evaluation of the basement structure after severe weather. As you know an old house needs constant inspection.
Isabel is simply spot on with class events across our society. This book becomes more important now than ever to understand and comprehend our house’s aging framework.
Her book documents time after time how African Americans have been cruelly abused by a class system. Isabel’s analog is that caste is the bone and race is the skin.
400 years of caste in America
Indeed, this book’s structure reveals 400 years of caste in America. Surprisingly this began with the slave trade prior to the pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth Rock in August 1619. In fact a Dutch slave trade ship arrived in America destined for the Caribbean. Isabel carries this forward to the Charlottesville car attack in August 2017. For more than 400 years caste is still shifting the foundation of America’s house.
From Jim Crow to Hitler’s Nuremberg laws
However the most shocking example of America’s caste system is learning Germany’s Nazi party in late 1920s began authoring the Nuremberg laws. German eugenicists in fact would look to America’s Jim Crow laws in Texas and North Carolina established in the 1850s as inspiration. This is certainly the most appalling chapter I have ever read:
The Nazis were impressed by the American custom of lynching its subordinate caste of African-Americans, having become aware of the ritual torture and mutilations that typically accompanied them. Hitler especially marveled at the American “knack for maintaining an air of robust innocence in the wake of mass death.” By the time that Hitler rose to power, the United States “was not just a country with racism,” Whitman, the Yale legal scholar, wrote. “It was the leading racist jurisdiction—so much so that even Nazi Germany looked to America for inspiration.
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Caste reveals so much about the impact of caste upon America that we still see today. It is especially overwhelming to consider how far reaching caste penetrates society even today. Likewise as India strives to address caste, Isabel’s book should be the spark to begin this conversation.
In conclusion, Isabel’s work is deeply moving. Unquestionably this arrives at a pivotal time as America is facing the 2020 election and the COVID pandemic. The goal of this book is not to better understand history but rather gain wisdom.
- Wall Street Journal: The High Cost of Feeling Superior
- NPR: It’s More Than Racism
- NPR: ‘Caste’ Argues Its Most Violent Manifestation Is In Treatment Of Black Americans
- The New Republic: Is America Trapped in a Caste System?
- Bloomberg: Disparity in Jobs Goes Deeper Than Racism
- The New Yorker: Isabel Wilkerson on America’s Caste System
- The New Yorker: Isabel Wilkerson’s World-Historical Theory of Race and Caste
- The Guardian: Caste: The Lies That Divide Us
- The Guardian: A dark study of violence and power
- New York Times: ‘Instant American Classic’ About Our Abiding Sin
- New York Times: What Do America’s Racial Problems Have in Common With India and Nazi Germany?
- The Washington Post: Running deeper than race: America’s caste system
UM Stamps | Ken Burns & Isabel Wilkerson: In Conversation
The Daily Show | Isabel Wilkerson – Classifying People By Caste
PBS | Isabel Wilkerson on America’s race and class hierarchy
Democracy Now! | What the Nazis Learned from Jim Crow
The New York Public Library | Caste in America