Stumbled across this book while browsing the digital library, read a few pages, and was hooked.
In this book Isabel Wilkerson, a black female journalist, looks at Americaās structural racism using the framework of caste, rather than race. In doing so she examines similar systems in other countries, particularly India, where they have a long and complex history with caste.
Indian Brahmins, at the top of the tree, were formerly so pure and holy that even being touched by the shadow of a Dalit, the original Untouchables, was enough to warrant purification rituals to free themselves from the taint. While some dismantling has been done since, the caste system still pervades many parts of Indian society. Wilkerson tells the story of Martin Luther King visiting India to learn from the Dalitās class struggle, and was shocked to hear himself introduced as āthe leader of Americaās Dalitsā. Once he unpacked his own instinctively negative reaction, he accepted the characterisation as accurate.
Wilkerson goes on to examine the ācaste systemā in America and how it arose from the history of slavery. She writes of how the system puts people into boxes based on how they look, and how stepping outside that box can both confuse and upset people. She tells an amazing story about being brushed off by an executive she had come to interview about his company. He kept telling her he couldnāt speak to her just then, because he was waiting for an important reporter from The New York Times who was going to interview him. She kept trying to convince him that she WAS that reporter and noted that no one else had shown up in the twenty minutes sheād been there, but he maintained the reporter must have been delayed, and she needed to leave. She didnāt end up interviewing him, and he missed out on valuable newspaper coverage of his company. She didnāt look like his idea of an āimportant reporterā. Sigh.
Another fascinating, if somewhat disturbing story, concerned how the Nazis looked at Americaās segregation laws for inspiration when it came to the āJewish problemā. They decided Americaās āone dropā definition was too strict, and settled on a looser definition for who would be defined as Jewish. As Wilkerson points out, when youāre too hardline for the Nazis, thatās saying something.
As someone who occupies a semi-privileged āmodel minorityā place in the caste system I could really relate to the experiences of not being seen for who you are, but what other people think you should be. I also related to having to tiptoe around the feelings of higher caste people, and adopting a sort of deference survival mechanism that is typically taken for granted by those above you. However, I also learned a lot from her experience of what itās like being āat the bottomā - a position that education, wealth, and status can shield you from to some extent, but never completely. See also: Forest Whitaker, movie star and Oscar winner, being frisked in a delicatessen in full public view of a gawking crowd. His crime: wanting to leave without buying anything.
