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A review by leahtylerthewriter
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
5.0
"The country cannot become whole until it confronts what was not a chapter in its history but the basis of its economic and social order. For a quarter millennium slavery was the country."
A nonfiction exploration of the caste system in the United States of America established in colonial Virginia and continuing until today.
Can I be the first person to volunteer to attend the Isabel Wilkerson University of United States History. Oh that's not a thing? Well it should be. This is the second book of hers I have read and again, Wilkerson is nothing short of genius.
She lays out an academic argument, that American society is founded on a caste system built on the illusion of race, and backs it up with concrete evidence. Yet this was one of the harder books I have ever read, emotionally. Like I could read a chapter, read another book, and then read another chapter. I needed plenty of time to digest in between.
This book answered so many questions about the fabric of my country, why things are the way they are, why the idiocy of racism has been allowed to persist for centuries. Wilkerson explained things in a way the people in charge of educating me in the public school system never did and probably never will.
The illusion of "whiteness" has been been knitted into our framewok since the colonizers first appeared. While not the first, America established a system so effective that both the Nazis and South African apartheid studied us in order to create their own suppressive societies. As a nation, we have yet to recognize any of this.
"Whatever is lurking will fester whether you choose to look or not. Ignorance is no protection from the consequences of inaction. Whatever you are wishing away will gnaw at you until you gather the courage to face what you would rather not see."
I could go on for hours but basically my review is read this book. Read it slowly. Masticate, digest, allow it to haunt you and make you uncomfortable and anger you and challenge everything you thought you understood about our society. However slowly you need to take it: Read. This. Book.
A nonfiction exploration of the caste system in the United States of America established in colonial Virginia and continuing until today.
Can I be the first person to volunteer to attend the Isabel Wilkerson University of United States History. Oh that's not a thing? Well it should be. This is the second book of hers I have read and again, Wilkerson is nothing short of genius.
She lays out an academic argument, that American society is founded on a caste system built on the illusion of race, and backs it up with concrete evidence. Yet this was one of the harder books I have ever read, emotionally. Like I could read a chapter, read another book, and then read another chapter. I needed plenty of time to digest in between.
This book answered so many questions about the fabric of my country, why things are the way they are, why the idiocy of racism has been allowed to persist for centuries. Wilkerson explained things in a way the people in charge of educating me in the public school system never did and probably never will.
The illusion of "whiteness" has been been knitted into our framewok since the colonizers first appeared. While not the first, America established a system so effective that both the Nazis and South African apartheid studied us in order to create their own suppressive societies. As a nation, we have yet to recognize any of this.
"Whatever is lurking will fester whether you choose to look or not. Ignorance is no protection from the consequences of inaction. Whatever you are wishing away will gnaw at you until you gather the courage to face what you would rather not see."
I could go on for hours but basically my review is read this book. Read it slowly. Masticate, digest, allow it to haunt you and make you uncomfortable and anger you and challenge everything you thought you understood about our society. However slowly you need to take it: Read. This. Book.