CASTE THE ORIGINS OF OUR DISCONTENTS BY ISABEL WILKERSON
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER
Review by James R Martin
Caste The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson is for me, the missing link in a long search for why there is so much adversity between people in the U.S., all homo sapiens members of the human race. Reading Caste The Origins of Our Discontents has helped me to realize a fact that has been obvious, but not recognized by many. The reality that there is an ongoing, pervasive caste system in the United States, and it is the framework for much that has happened here in the last 400 years. Wilkerson traces the history of the caste systems in the U.S., India, and in Nazi Germany. She makes it clear that the terms “white” and “black” are artificial constructs that evolved to create the dominant tier and the subservient tier in the caste system of the U.S. The “them” and “us” system I believe many in the country are still trying to perpetuate at this very moment.
Caste The Origins of Our Discontent is written in a documentary style. The words create a visual and literal narrative for the reader. The writing is clear. It tells a story that creates a historical journey through time to reveal actuality that has been purposely ignored, swept aside, and disguised. The book’s point-of-view is factual, deeply researched, and stitched together with the antidotal personal experiences of the author and many others who have experienced firsthand aspects of the American Caste system based on skin color. It may be that many of the people who blend into the dominant tier of the caste system don’t realize consciously that they are part of that tier or that there is a caste system at all. But reading Caste will quickly lead to recognizing the manifestations of caste wherever they reside in this multi-tiered caste system.
Author Isabel Wilkerson compares the U.S. caste system to both the one in India and the one created by the Nazi’s in Germany under Hitler. You may be surprised to learn which system was in part too extreme for the Nazi’s to completely emulate in their early days.
Caste The Origins of Our Discomforts helps the reader understand the brutal caste system that was created while there were still colonies here in North America 400 years ago when slaves were first sold in Virginia. In order to perpetuate slavery, the slaves were dehumanized and pushed into the bottom rung of an emerging caste system. The colonists had already tried enslaving the indigenous people of the new world. But they found that the African slaves torn from homes far away were more suited for their purposes. Wilkerson writes: “The institution of slavery created a crippling distortion of human relationships where people on one side were made to perform the role of subservience and to sublimate whatever innate talents or intelligence they might have had.”
The origins of the caste system are traced beginning with slavery right through the civil war to the present time. Wilkerson examines the period after the civil war when slavery ended, yet the system still managed to keep African Americans in the bottom caste layer. The equivalent to the untouchables of the Indian Caste System. This process continues and reinforces itself not only in the south but throughout the entire country, even after civil rights and voting rights enacted. Today there are many instances of profiling by caste that are obvious when one becomes aware of the workings of the system. There are inescapable conclusions about what is happening in the United States at this moment in time.
The book reveals the multiple layers of the U.S. caste system based on artificial classifications between those who qualify as “white” and those who are deemed “black.” In between, there are layers, shades of Asian skin tones, brown tones, Latin’s, and others. For a time, the Irish did not qualify as white enough to become part of the dominant caste and Italians, especially Sicilians were designated to the black caste. In 1905 Cubans who had been uncertain how they would be classified in Tampa’s Ybor City were relieved to find they could sit in the “white” section of the streetcars.
“Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations.” The notion of a caste system cannot be fully understood without looking at its use in other cultures and countries. Notably India and Nazi Germany. Using first person accounts and documented history Wilkerson examines and compares those occurrences with the system that exists in the U.S.
Caste The Origins of Our Discontents must be read to understand the history of the U.S., its politics, and the current state of affairs. It seems that the divisions in this country are mired in hostility by some of the population trying to protect the dominant “white” caste even though they themselves may not actually qualify to be on that upper-tier level. They take out their resentment and insecurity against what Wilkerson describes as “scapegoats” in the bottom rungs of the caste system. Caste The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson makes it possible to understand where we are today in the U.S. culturally and politically. Read Caste The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson.
Review by James R Martin, author Documentary Directing and Storytelling.
