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A review by sarahmcg
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, and Violence
Minor: Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Police brutality, and Mass/school shootings