Social classes and the people that try to uphold them make me sick. Unfortunately, two white anthropologists began similar, but less in-depth studies while their work was being completed and published their findings in 1937 and 1939. [3] The book was a finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize[40] and was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Nonfiction,[41] the 2021 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award,[42] and the 2021 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. Conservatives proudly rally their white bases, while Democrats are less enthusiastic about their base (possibly taking them for granted). She compares this to the unfelt but still potent silent earthquakes that are taking place under our feet. Their class was technically the same as whites, but caste dictated that black passengers eat after any white people on the ship. Wilkerson begins by discussing an outbreak of anthrax in Siberia in summer 2016. 1-Sentence-Summary: Caste unveils the hidden cultural and societal rules of our class system, including where it comes from, why its so deeply entrenched in society, and how we can dismantle it forever and finally allow all people to have the equality they deserve. Its followed by the Reconstruction of the South, which lasts for 12 years. Meanwhile in America, the election between Trump (though Wilkerson never refers to him by name) and Hillary Clinton approaches. Similarly, in America many cases of experimentation on African American populations have been identified, such as allowing syphillus to go untreated (the Tuskegee Study) to document its affects or injecting test subjects with plutonium without their consent. Caste designations are based on location and is reflected in surnames as well, but can also be surmised from someone's manner of speaking, dress and comportment. [6], Wilkerson continues by describing the "consequences of caste", which degrade people of all castes. You can choose to ignore the problems, and eventually these problems become normal to you.
Pillar Number Seven: Terror as Enforcement, Cruelty as a Means of Control. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. She goes on to describe the "tentacles of caste": the various ways in which a caste system society permeates the workings of a society infected by it. Its not your fault since you inherited the house. For example, an enslaved African man named Onesimus described the process for inoculating from disease using fluids from an infected person (precursor to immunization) to Cotton Mather, a Puritan leader.
Lets see how much we can discover in just 3 lessons: Ready to learn all about social classes and how to dismantle them? Wilkerson notes how violence is commonly directed at the most successful members of the lower caste. Wilkerson compares the need for lower caste members to see the world through the eyes of the dominant caste, including extending compassion even when none is forthcoming in exchange, as a type of Stockholm Syndrome (a phenomenon where people bond with their abusers or captors). Wilkerson notes that the United States still remains divided in essentially the same way it was during the Civil War. These cookies do not store any personal information. Surnames are the main indicator of caste (Dalits have names referring to humble or dirty work while Brahmins carry the names of the gods), but over time things like their manner of speaking, dress and composure can divide them as well. 6. On a flight to Denver, a flight attendant refuses to assist her after assuming she is not in first class, despite evidence to the contrary such as her boarding with other first class passengers. To compare, in another sentencing around the same time, a young black man is sent to jail for 10 days for arriving late to jury duty. Even if you are not the one who did the damage in the past, you are still its current occupant, and therefore everything that is right and wrong with it is yours to deal with. At various points, 41 out of the 50 states have had some type of laws against intermarriage. Still, they shied away from adopting Americas one-drop rule (where even a drop of Negro blood was sufficient to be considered black), viewing it as overly harsh. A lawsuit by a Japanese immigrant claiming that his pale skin should qualify him as white resulted in a unanimous 1922 Supreme Court ruling which held that white meant Caucasian. In Leesburg, Texas, Wylie McNeely is chained to a stake after being accused of assaulting a white girl. Pillar Number Three: Endogamy and the Control of Marriage and Mating.
Meanwhile, in staunchly Republican Alabama, legislation was passed to ensure no confederate statues could be removed. Wilkerson supports her analysis with an immense compendium of documented research that spans centuries. The question that remains is, what happened to America? Wilkerson argues that while it seems like the United States has had a sudden major shift, its necessary to look deeper to discover the origins of our discontents. The Trump Presidency. The Black caricature as a simple jester resulted in the minstrel-ization of black people, as seen in the popularization of black-face actors mocking them during Jim Crow-era America. In New Orleans the process of removing four Confederate statues, a decision from the mayor, became complicated when potential contractors were sent threats and one even had his car fire-bombed.
We also participate in other affiliate programs, such as Blinkist, MindValley, Audible, Audiobooks, Reading.FM, and others. Blacks and Jewish people were also greatly stigmatized. The sixth Pillar of Caste is Dehumanization. Meanwhile, the Tea Party emerged with promises to take our country back, Republicans began focusing on changing election laws to increase barriers to voting and hate groups proliferated. This section looks at the caste system of India and compares it to that of the U.S. India abolished the formal laws governing their caste system in the 1940s (just as civil rights laws were passed in the U.S. in the 1960s), but the caste system functionally lives on. Tragically, whippings, burnings, and hangings were things both Nazis and American slave owners did as a means of control or to serve warnings. "[15] Time magazine called the book a "transformative new framework through which to understand identity and injustice in America. American definitions of race served as a guide for how to create these artificial divisions between people, and there was interest in the American habit of assigning humans to categories by fractions of perceived ancestry. Similarly, Madison Grants ideas on the sterilization and quarantining of undesirables were commended by Hitler with a personal note to Grant stating The book is my Bible. In the Antebellum South, free black passengers on a ship end up presenting a problem with regards to dining order. Some people interpret Canaan to have dark skin. In modern day, on a 2015 Napa wine tour, a book club consisting of black women ride a wine train, but is deemed too loud by the matre d. :). Those two studies, and not the Davis study, became considered the landmark studies on the topic. When he refuses, on account of being a doctor who must return to his patients who is in a seat he booked and paid for, he is forcibly dragged off the plane by police, suffering injuries including the loss of teeth, as onlookers watch. This includes extending compassion even when none is forthcoming in exchange. Thank you for your support. A few years ago, the US had around 230 memorials commemorating Robert E Lee, the commander of the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Wilkerson also asserts that the political parties have come to be treated according to their association with their proximate castes. ", Wilkerson says Sims would "invite leading men in town and apprentices in to see for themselves. There were times in America when the mere accusation that a Black man touched a white woman ended in lynching. It won or was nominated for several awards, and was featured prominently on nonfiction bestsellers lists and year-end best-books lists. These come in the form of income gaps, police brutality, a lack of healthcare access. The Key Ideas and Chapter-by-Chapter Summary for Caste by Isabel Wilkerson are below. Caste, Wilkerson posits, is dependent upon the dehumanization of the other, most powerfully seen in the use of Jews and Blacks as the subject of horrific experiments by the respective dominant caste systems of Germany and America. Meanwhile, sometimes the perpetrators of mistreatment of the lower castes can be others within that group, out of the desire to prove themselves to those around them or to higher caste members (such as with black cops participating in police brutality). Pillar Number Six: Dehumanization and Stigma. A key indicator of health and longevity are telomeres (a repeating sequence of double-stranded DNA at the end of a chromosome). Trump represents the conservative party, which leans white, while Clinton represents the liberal party, which consists of more marginalized voters. "We had defied our caste assignments: He was not a warrior or ruler.
Consequently, French officers were directed not to praise or commend black soldiers too much, lest they offend the white soldiers. Terror as Enforcement and Cruelty as Means of Control. A caste system involves a ranking of human value according to ancestry and/or immutable traits. Let us look not to the wolves, but to the hyenas. On plantations, a slave driver was selected from among the black slaves to keep order. The caste system takes form as enslavement continues for the next 250 years, but even as slavery is abolished, systems of laws are passed to keep the social organization in place. Later, the teacher switched the castes, with brown eyes being superior. The Europeans had been unable to enslave the Native Americans and had now solved their labor problem with African captives, so they began exiling the indigenous people. In 1932, Einstein arrived in the United States, surprised to find that, as a Jew escaping Nazi Germany, he had landed in yet another caste system, noting that in his new home the worst disease is the treatment of the Negro. Lower-caste success presents the greatest threat to the caste system, since it threatens the identity of everyone within the system. The Problem with the R-Word. He is stripped, beaten, tied to a lamppost, shot, burned in a bonfire and dragged through the streets. This means you are born into whatever caste your parents belong to. Were all human beings, we are all equal, and we all deserve equal rights, opportunities, and treatment. Wilkerson compares the rules of the caste system to the rules of grammar in language. Wilkerson notes that the caste system became the murders unwitting accomplice. Wilkerson also notes how lower caste members have not been denied credit for their ideas and innovations. In America, a lynching tree serves as a reminder and warning to black citizens and a symbol of reassurance to the dominant caste. They blamed Nazis for Germanys loss in World War I and the economic downturn that came after. Also, African-Americans were banned from swimming pools. They tell you that stress cracks in the foundation are bending the ceilings. They travelled from the North down to Natchez, Mississippi in 1933 to conduct a study about race and class in the Jim Crow South, reporting back their findings to a Cambridge professor. American caste system began with the arrival of the first captive Africans in Virginia in the summer of 1619. While many found it touching, on its face, theres the discomfort of why parents would allow their child to offer hugs to strangers. The incorrect placement of people in human society in roles that arent suited for their personalities is ultimately bad for everyone involved. Over time, these castes harden into customs of unearned deference and dehumanizing beliefs about the lower caste. In the 1990s, a social scientist asks a group of white college students how much theyd need to be paid to be black for the next 50 years. Caste attempts to restrict marriage to those within the same caste. She suggests a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to assess the full costs of what the caste system has cost us.
The descriptions are vivid in their horror; the connections travel across history and time to resonate in the mind. A black man with a record was the main suspect until Charless brother confessed knowing about the plot. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. There are real health implications caused by discrimination, as seen in all marginalized groups. In this short chapter, Wilkerson describes an anecdote about a German girl with dark, wavy hair who is questioned about her ethnicity during WWII after the Jews had almost entirely been eliminated from German life. Presenter of "[21] Dwight Garner, in The New York Times, described Caste as "an instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far. That need to preserve the group can give rise to radicalism or fascism. For the next quarter of a millennium, 1619 to 1865, slavery and its horrors continued. Time we got back to that. Its soon followed by a number of violent, racially-based attacks, and 2017 becomes the deadliest year for mass shootings in Americas history. In this chapter, Wilkerson discusses her research and earlier attempts at understanding Americas hierarchy in terms of caste, including MLKs visit to India where he was deemed an American untouchable. Ultimately, everyone benefits when society meets the needs of the disadvantaged, and Nazi Germany serves as evidence that a caste system can be dismantled. Its requisites are vigor, docility, fidelity. Pillar Number Eight: Inherent Superiority Versus Inherent Inferiority. It effectively combines two pillars of caste divine will and pollution into a single idea.
Unconscious Bias: A Mutation in the Software. This section discusses the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States and his presidency. In 1916, Eugenicist Madison Grant writes about the common purpose of Indias system and Jim Crow laws. While Nazi general Erwin Rommel was a gifted military leader, Germans didnt erect statues. Social psychologist Erich Fromm theorizes that those seeking to preserve the dominant caste can be drawn to narcissistic leaders, since they see their fortunes and fates as their own and the are attracted to the lack of doubts in their leader. In Germany, Nazis restricted Jews from beaches and public pools. To compare, Germany has no monuments that celebrate their Nazi past. In America, no such incentives existed, and instead the focus has been on exclusion. They knew things like adverts for the circus coming into town or political rallies were not meant for them, and they knew not to shake the hands of white folks.
Over the following ten days, there were more black victims of package bombs. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Wilkerson also notes that if substance abuse had been treated as a systemic and social issue (as opposed to a crime problem) when the subordinate classes were having drug problems in the 1990s, there would likely be a better framework now to handle the current opioid problem. Thank you very much for sharing this wonderful and very well-organized thoughts and summaries. Wilkerson opens by describing how a Nobel Prize-winning physicist ended up with mounting medical bills as he grew older and ended up having to auction off his Nobel medal for funds before his death. Other physiological effects of discrimination researcher have seen include a build-up of unhealthy (visceral) fat and inflammation, all of which are seen in all types of marginalized groups, including white women who experience discrimination.
