Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

Brief Summary

America has operated under a caste system since its founding. This system places whites at the top and African-Americans in the subordinate caste, using the eight pillars of the caste system to uphold this structural hierarchy for hundreds of years. While some structural shifts have taken place, such as the expanding of the category of “whites” to include other immigrant groups, overall African-Americans have struggled to break free from the lower caste. This is due to America’s history of systematic oppression in the form of things like slavery and Jim Crow laws, as well as the pushback from members of the dominant caste, who fear that social upheaval would threaten their position at the top of the social hierarchy. The caste system is entrenched in America, and the first step to breaking down the caste system is making others aware that it exists.

About the Author

Isabel Wilkerson is a journalist, bestselling author, and Pulitzer Prize, winner. She is the recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Award for Nonfiction, the Lynton History Prize from Harvard and Columbia universities, and the Stephen Ambrose Oral History Prize.

Previously, Wilkerson worked as Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times, where she won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 1994. She has taught journalism at Emory University, Princeton University, Northwestern University, and Boston University's College of Communication.

Topics

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What You’ll Learn

How the caste system in America has persisted from its founding to the present day
The eight pillars that are essential for upholding a caste system
How attempts to dismantle the caste system are perceived as threats by members of the dominant caste

Who Is This For

Americans who want to better understand the foundations of systemic racism in the United States
People who want to know how to better address race inequality in America
Individuals who want to gain a better understanding of the causes of structural inequality, racism, and political extremism

Key Insights

Ever since 1619, America has been operating under a caste system, with whites in the superior caste and African-Americans in the subordinate caste. America’s caste system is not so different from the one in India or the one that was established in Nazi Germany. In all of these instances, the eight pillars of the caste system have been upheld to ensure that the social hierarchy remains in place. In fact, Nazi Germany even looked to America’s example to help them in devising race-based laws, rules, and punishments.

However, in America, certain groups of people have been able to break out of their caste designations, such as Italians and Irish immigrants, who, over a few generations, were able to join the superior white group. Black people, on the other hand, have not been as easily able to buck the caste system. Slavery and Jim Crow laws ensured African-Americans remained in the lower caste, and when legislators tried to enact methods to end the imbalance, they received lots of pushback from other members of society, who felt their position in the social hierarchy was being threatened. Members of the dominant class fear losing their social status, and many reject systemic changes, especially symbolic changes such as the removal of certain memorials and monuments. Inequality in America is a systemic problem that has been ongoing for hundreds of years, so it will take work to break it down. Listening to and humanizing each other, as well as making others aware of the existence of the caste system in America, are some of the important steps people can take to help dismantle the system.

America’s Structural Problems Run Deep

America has structural problems that will only grow worse if they are not addressed. Much like an old house, simple solutions like a new coat of paint won’t solve the problems. While it is not the individual owner’s fault that the structure is unsound, it belongs to them now, so it is up to them to fix it. If it is not fixed, the problems will only grow worse.

America’s systemic race problems include wide income gaps, police brutality and violence, and lack access to health care, a problem that has been recently highlighted by the ongoing pandemic. These problems have been ongoing since America’s founding three hundred years ago, and looking at caste can help explain why these problems of systemic racism have been so resistant to change. Caste is a system of social hierarchy, in which people on...