Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Castas: As Origens do Nosso Descontentamento by Isabel Wilkerson

21 reviews

sarahmcg's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

It’s difficult for me to rate/review non-fiction. However - I’ll do my best because I need  people to read this book!

This books is incredibly well-researched from start to finish. Not only does it include facts and figures, but moving personal stories from the author and those she interviewed that I will carry with me for a long time. It was a new perspective to see the comparisons drawn between the US caste system (based on race and white supremacy), the caste system during Nazi Germany, and the caste system in India. 

“Empathy is no substitute for the experience itself. We don't get to tell a person with a broken leg or a bullet wound that they are not in pain. And people who have hit the caste lottery are not in a position to tell a person who has suffered under the tyranny of caste what is offensive or hurtful or demeaning to those at the bottom. The price of privilege is the moral duty to act when one sees another person treated unfairly. And the least that a person in the dominant caste can do is not make the pain any worse.”

Several times throughout the book as the author moved through different time periods, I found myself wondering, “would I have been on the right side of history?” Because most of the time, white people have not been. There are many lessons/reminders to gain from this book, but a few would be: to continue to disrupt the current system in place, use your privilege to speak out, and listen to those marginalized communities who are hurting, especially when it’s uncomfortable. 

“Caste is insidious and therefore powerful because it is not hatred, it is not necessarily personal. It is the worn grooves of comforting routines and unthinking expectations, patterns of a social order that have been in place for so long that it looks like the natural order of things.”

If you have read this, I’d love to discuss! I think this would be a great book club pick. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Police brutality, and Mass/school shootings

ebrown0789's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

This book was eye-opening. My only complaint is that I felt there were way too many analogies towards the beginning.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Police brutality

beanjoles's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would. Caste explained for me so many elements of American society that I had sensed below the surface but never totally understood. This is the education that every American needs, particularly white or upper-caste Americans.  It is one of the most informative, moving, and necessary books I’ve ever read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

Moderate: Antisemitism

f18's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

3.0

Even going into this after reading reviews and therefore knowing it was more US-centric than international, I found it disappointing. The writing structure is multiple anecdotes per chapter followed by a sum-up of what Wilkerson was wanting to illustrate with those stories. It was not very intersectional and rarely mentioned groups outside of black and white when discussing the United States. While the anecdotes definitely have value it read more like a pop-social science book to me, which I suppose is the author's intention but not to my taste in nonfiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide, War, and Classism

Minor: Rape, Sexism, Xenophobia, Mass/school shootings, and Colonisation

tlilf's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

buttermellow's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Antisemitism, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Grief, and Medical trauma

Minor: Gun violence and Police brutality

whisper88's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

A classroom must read.

The audiobook version narrated by Robin Miles is a good way to get this down, especially if you are reading another lighthearted book at the time as literary "spoonful of sugar" because Caste is indeed a bitter pill to swallow. 

I'm glad I read it and I know I'll need to reread it to be able to better grasp it's intent, however I left me feeling like I just watched Django Unchained: more or less sick to my stomach. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Rape

julied's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Murder

annabunce's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Read this book. Isabel Wilkerson does a incredible job framing and explaining the American caste system within the context of other caste systems to fully illustrate the history of slavery and slavery's long lasting impact on Black Americans. I feel like reading this book I realized just how successful the American narrative has been at downplaying the horrors and systemic normalized racism faced by Black Americans. Definitely the kind of book that will shift your thinking and make you look at your world in a new way. This pulled back the curtain and made me consider Canada's own caste system in a whole new light. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder

thebespectacledbookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Slavery, Violence, and Antisemitism

Minor: Rape, Torture, Police brutality, and Murder