Caste : the origins of our discontents

Author

Isabel Wilkerson

Call Number

• LARGE TYPE 305.5122 W681 (CEN, OSH, WSQ)

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Edition

Large print edition.

Publication Information

Waterville, Maine : Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2021.

Physical Description

709 pages (large print) ; 23 cm

Summary

The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power-- which groups have it and which do not. Wilkerson explores how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. She discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.

Notes

"Oprah's book club, 2020."

Contents

• The man in the crowd
• Toxins in the permafrost and heat rising all around. The afterlife of pathogens ; The vitals of history ; An old house and an infrared light ; An American untouchable ; An invisible program
• The arbitrary construction of human divisions. A long-running play and the emergence of caste in America ; "The container we have built for you" ; The measure of humanity ; Through the fog of Delhi to the parallels in India and America ; The Nazis and the acceleration of caste ; The evil of silence
• The eight pillars of caste. The foundations of caste: the origins of our discontents ; Pillar number one: divine will and the laws of nature ; Pillar number two: heritability ; Pillar number three: endogamy and the control of marriage and mating ; Pillar number four: purity versus pollution ; Pillar number five: occupational hierarchy: the Jatis and the Mudsil ; Pillar number six: dehumanization and stigma ; Pillar number seven: terror as enforcement, cruelty as a means of control ; Pillar number eight: inherent superiority versus inherent inferiority
• The tentacles of caste. Brown eyes versus blue eyes ; Central miscasting ; Dominant group status threat and the precarity of the highest rung ; A scapegoat to bear the sins of the world ; The insecure alpha and the purpose of an underdog ; The intrusion of caste in everyday life ; The urgent necessity of a bottom rung ; Last place anxiety: packed in a flooding basement ; On the early front lines of caste ; Satchel Paige and the illogic of caste
• The consequences of caste. The euphoria of hate ; The inevitable narcissism of caste ; The German girl with the dark, wavy hair ; The Stockholm syndrome and the survival of the subordinate caste ; Shock troops on the borders of hierarchy ; Cortisol, telomeres, and the lethality of caste
• Backlash. A change in the script ; Turning point and the resurgence of caste ; The symbols of caste ; Democracy on the ballot ; The price we pay for a caste system
• Awakening. Shedding the sacred thread ; The radicalization of the dominant caste ; The heart is the last frontier
• Epilogue: a world without caste.