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RaWBC review of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Casteism: Structural Injustice
Respect and compassion denied
Author Isabel Wilkerson invites us to consider how casteism exists in our everyday lives, even in the modern world. She employs the following definition of casteism in her book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
“granting or withholding of respect, status, honor, attention, privileges, resources, benefit of the doubt, and human kindness to someone on the basis of their perceived rank or standing in the hierarchy.”
Wilkerson offers her readers the opportunity to understand systemic racism through the lens of the caste system. She asks us to question: “Who is at the pinnacle of the hierarchal pyramid, and who makes up the base.” “Who benefits from the system of caste, and who is no more than a disposable servant of those who reap the benefits.”
She walks the reader through the caste system in India, that had Dalits (Untouchables) at the bottom of the pyramid of hierarchy, the caste system in The Third Reich, that had Jews (and others) at the base level of society, and the United States, that has placed black people…
