Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson; Random House, 2020, ISBN 9780593, available via Amazon.
By Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel
ENCINITAS, California — I just made a contribution to the NAACP after being mesmerized listening to the audible edition of Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
Perhaps my contribution is a guilt offering. No matter, it is never too late to step up to the plate and take a swing against profound racial injustice in our country.
By chance, I saw this book listed on San Diego Library’s list of available Audio books. Once I began listening, I had trouble stopping as the book is a mind-opener.
Wilkerson shines a bright light on the radical caste system in India of the “untouchables” (Dalits), the oppression and murder of Jews in Nazi Germany and the systemic racism against African-Americans in our country. All with the aim of keeping the lowest-ranked people at the bottom and preserve the upper-class structure and hierarchy.
Wilkeson examines the incredible and unsettling similarities of these communities who after centuries of exploitation are still fighting for justice, equality, and freedom. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
The word Racism is probably more frequently heard but the following adjectives that are described and interwoven through the book shed far more in-depth meanings.
The author’s personal memoirs of confronting deep and even subtle acts of racism are so vivid and well-told that my gut felt her anger and humiliation.
Here are some of the powerful words she elaborates in the book in addition to Racism.
Caste: A system of rigid stratification of people characterized by hereditary status, endogamy (marriage within a specific group by law or custom) and social barriers sanctioned by custom, law or religion.
Hierarchy: A system in which people are placed in a series of levels with different importance or status.
Anti-Semitism: Hostility or discrimination towards Jews as a religion, ethnic or racial group.
For an excellent and lengthy review of this book, check Dwight Garner’s article in The New York Times issue dated July 31, 2020. I love his brief sentence, “she lifts our minds out of old ruts into reality.”
In contrast to “lengthy” my primary aim is to keep it brief and hopefully light a fire under your curiosity to rent or purchase a copy of Caste and, “get back to reality!”
Wilkerson brought her story right up to modern times when she reported to anyone who imagined that the election of Barack Obama was a sign that America had begun to enter a post-racial era, the majority of whites did not vote for him.
Isabel Wilkerson, a graduate of Harvard was the first woman of African-American heritage to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism.
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Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel is cantor emeritus of Congregation Beth Israel. At 96, he now is a resident of Seacrest Village Retirement Communities.
Totally agree w Cantor Merel. Caste is the important book I’ve read on racism. Beautifully written. An easy yet horrifying read.