Caste: The origins of our discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson

One of the more important books to come out during this plague year. It was a hard read during these already upsetting times – the impulse to hide out from disease, injustice, and political unrest in light fiction is strong. Wilkerson uses the concept of “caste” rather than “race” throughout, with frequent references and comparisons to the ancient Indian system, a system still very much part of that society. The horrific history of Nazi Germany is also used in comparison, and even the Nazis felt some American laws at that time that were based on race were too extreme. Although many of born into the dominant white caste, such as I am, may believe that we know a lot about the shameful history of slavery and subsequent oppression of African-Americans in this country, one will learn a great deal more in Wilkerson’s book, most of it very uncomfortable. In recent years, the wealth gap in America has been much talked about. Most aware people know that Black people in America have access to only about a tenth of the wealth that whites do. That they may be one paycheck away from losing everything because they do not have family money to call on in an emergency. But how this came about is clearly and forcefully related – one fairly recent factor being that Social Security, at its inception, intentionally did not apply to jobs traditionally held by Blacks – domestic and agricultural work. Therefore, Social Security provided no “safety net” for them nor way to accumulate generational wealth. Redlining shut down owning homes. Wilkerson also describes how wave after wave of later immigrants, but not those who had been here for generations because of slavery, became “white.” Such immigrants as the Irish, Italians, Germans and Eastern European could rise through an American caste system defined by poverty and position as well as color since they had a paler complexions. How Asians fit into the American caste system is a different story which she also elucidates. Much to think about, discuss, and most of all act upon to bring a more just and equal United States. Should be required reading. 395 pp.