Kathairo Solutions

Few books have the ability to educate very deeply on a particular topic, inspire readers to change their perspective, and provide a framework for action. This is especially true regarding the topic of race. Yet, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents accomplishes all of these. Isabel Wilkerson’s experience as a New York Times and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist along with being a world-renowned professor are on full display as she delves into racism on national and global scales.

Specifically, Caste explores: 

• Caste vs Class– Whereas class is basically social status based on wealth or lack thereof, caste is a fixed order that is normally based on a hereditary trait. Castes are created to label human beings with different levels of worth and dignity. You can work your way to a higher class or fall into a lower class, but in a caste society a person can never escape their ranking in the hiearchy. For example, a Black man in the American Jim Crown South could amass a certain amount of wealth and rise to a higher class among Black people, but he would never be allowed to enter spaces designated for White people.
• The sad parallels of America, India, and Nazi Germany and their respective caste systems. Each share the quality of using physical traits to label people in lower and upper casts while fueling fear and hate in the upper cast towards the lower cast. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited India, he was introduced to a certain group as a fellow untouchable (lowest caste). Sadly, and perhaps surprisingly, several policies enacted in Nazi Germany were inspired by studying the Jim Crow segregation of the United States.
• How in the United States, many remnants of the racial caste system are still in place today. Anyone with eyes can look around in the United States and see the deep racial and ethnic segregation that still exists. Although there are no laws on the books, certain harmful mindsets and prejudices still remain. Much of the separation that we still experience in America today has its roots in its caste system.

In my opinion, this book is for anyone who looks around and sees the deep racial segregation of our country, is saddened by it, and wants to know how to take steps forward to reconciliation. The only way to provide healing along these lines is to understand how the separation started in the first place. Caste is the resource for someone engaged in these efforts.

Did you know that Kathairo Solutions leads discussions on topics like the ones highlighted in this post? Contact us to learn more about coordinating a professional development or training for your organization.

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