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A review by bk610
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
5.0
Required reading to understand America
I'm finding it hard to say that I loved this book, because of how uncomfortable it has made me. Love is not the right word, but perhaps grateful is.
On a factual level, there were so many new perspectives shared on topics that I had thought I had already thoroughly covered during school—Nazi Germany and WWII, the American Civil War, and numerous current events that I've passively witnessed over the last few years. Some of these are so radically different from what I had understood prior that I'm still finding it difficult to come to terms with them. In particular, the use of American policies and attitudes to inspire the Nazi regime leaves me speechless. Finding it infuriating that this is not common knowledge and part of the standard educational curriculum.
I hope to have many conversations using this new (to me) vocabulary and understanding of caste in America, and to open myself to empathize across these baselessly constructed barriers. For now, I think I'll be overwhelmed by just processing this material for a while longer and beginning to understand the deeper levels to which the caste system actively impacts the lives of myself and those around me.
I'm finding it hard to say that I loved this book, because of how uncomfortable it has made me. Love is not the right word, but perhaps grateful is.
On a factual level, there were so many new perspectives shared on topics that I had thought I had already thoroughly covered during school—Nazi Germany and WWII, the American Civil War, and numerous current events that I've passively witnessed over the last few years. Some of these are so radically different from what I had understood prior that I'm still finding it difficult to come to terms with them. In particular, the use of American policies and attitudes to inspire the Nazi regime leaves me speechless. Finding it infuriating that this is not common knowledge and part of the standard educational curriculum.
I hope to have many conversations using this new (to me) vocabulary and understanding of caste in America, and to open myself to empathize across these baselessly constructed barriers. For now, I think I'll be overwhelmed by just processing this material for a while longer and beginning to understand the deeper levels to which the caste system actively impacts the lives of myself and those around me.