Reviews tagging 'Mass/school shootings'

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

15 reviews

plethora's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

Isabel Wilkerson expertly presents the reality of North America in an unmistakable new light through drawing connections to both India’s and Germany’s caste systems. In a stark, honest, and objective compilation of historical events around the world, Wilkerson shows America who they are, and leaves the reader to decide what to do about it.

I have not experienced such an enlightening reframing of cultural norms since Chanel Miller’s “Know My Name”. Every person in the western world, and perhaps beyond, can benefit greatly by reading this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

Moderate: Ableism, Suicide, Mass/school shootings, War, and Classism

drought_season's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Police brutality, and Classism

Minor: Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and Pandemic/Epidemic

useyourgoodeye's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

This book took me 16 days to read because I had to step away from it a lot to process it fully. Very eye opening and there is a movie out called Origin about the book that I'll be watching soon (Hulu). This is a very difficult and emotional book to get through. It requires you to examine your own life and the lives of others at a level which can make you uncomfortable, sad, and angry. Totally worth it though. It should be used in colleges across the world as required reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

chaoticnostalgia's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Classism

Moderate: Sexism and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Mass/school shootings

pollyflorence's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Antisemitism, and Mass/school shootings

youreawizardjerry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

madradstarchild's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Torture

Moderate: Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Minor: Ableism, Drug use, Racial slurs, Rape, Colonisation, War, and Classism

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

sydapel's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

While I don't know that I completely agree with the fundamental hypothesis of this book (for may reasons, some of which I can articulate and some I can't), Wilkerson's ability to combine storytelling and and commentary on systematic racism in this country is done incredibly well. I do wish more time was spent on detailing the complexities of the Indian caste system, but that's a personal thing I don't think it detracts from the power this book has. (read as Part of SFCM's anti racism book club)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Terminal illness, Mass/school shootings, and Death of parent

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