Isabel Wilkerson's book Caste is a life-altering book. It is deep and complex, yet incredibly readable. Wilkerson is a masterful researcher, but what makes this book so easy to read despite the sorrow of the subject is each sentence's beauty.
She writes the story of the Caste system in India, Nazi Germany, and the United States in the style of fiction. In some alternative magical thinking world that I would like to live in this book and the 1619 project will be the first thing read by every high school history class.
Her prose is something out of this world. You are reading about some of the cruelest and darkest periods of humankind, but just want to inhale more and more. Part of the genius of it all is Wilkerson often writes the names of people we are supposed to know without actually naming them in such an artistic way.
"First to break more than two centuries of tradition and birthright, it would take the human equivalent of a supernova--a Harvard trained-lawyer, a U.S. Senator from the land of Lincoln whose expertise was the Constitution itself, whose charisma and oratory matched or exceeded that of most any man who had ever risen to the Oval Office, whose unusual upbringing inclined him toward conciliation of the racial divide, who famously saw the country as not blue states or restates but as the United States, whose wife, if it could be imagined, was also a Harvard-trained lawyer with as much star power as her husband, who, together with their two young daughters, made for a telegenic American dream family, and who, beyond all this, ran a scrupulous, near-flawless campaign, a movement really."
Yes, that was one sentence to describe Obama, without saying Obama, but what a sentence!
She makes the point countless times that it is not just about discovering one person is racist or not, but addressing our systematic failures. The names matter less. Even when she describes a story of somebody that is so juicy, and full of internet red meat that begs us to want to call it out on twitter, she shrugs. There is nothing to gain from you knowing who it is, because who it is inconsequential, it is the entire system that needs to be changed.
It is like she is creating another world for us to believe in, a parallel world, but not exact. In reality, it is the most truthful description I have ever read.
The code for this caste world is like thousands of lines of simple Html codes "if this persons' color is this, they are treated this way…" And when the code is ingrained into our society's everyday life, it takes on a life of its own. The algorithm wins. But just like the Facebook newsfeed, the algorithm of our caste system was built by the dominant case to secure their power.
America is an old house. When you live in an old house, you may not want to go into the basement after a storm to see what the rains have wrought. Choose not to look, however, at your own peril. The owner of an old house knows that whatever you are ignoring will never go away. Whatever is lurking will fester whether you choose to look or not. Ignorance is no protection from the consequences of inaction.
The coronavirus found, exploited, and widened every inequity that the U.S. had to offer," Ed Yong writes in his sweeping overview of America's disastrous response to Covid-19.
The year 2020 proves just how old, and broken our house looks. It might have the best paint job to gloss over the rot, but the studs are filled with termites. The computer code of Caste may not have written the exact line of Html that explains our current pathogen, but the algorithm knew well enough to predict how it would play out.
"The earth's most powerful nation watched as faraway workers in hazmat gear tested for what no one could see, and deluded itself into believing that American exceptionalism would somehow grant it immunity from the sorrows of other countries." writes Wilkerson.
The virus would start in wealthy dominant class communities where people traveled the world by cruise boat or plane, but then when they went into hiding and quarantined, the subordinate class would continue to work. The virus would spread quickly in subordinate caste communities where there were inadequate health care and housing.
And it is a surprise to nobody that the party that has waged a two-pronged media and political war against science for decades decided to downplay this virus actively. And even after almost 200,000 have died, at least forty percent of the country is sticking with the current leadership.
"If people were given the choice between democracy and whiteness, how many would choose whiteness?" Taylor Branch asks Wilkerson. Branch dedicated so much time to telling the story of MLK and the civil rights movement. It is the question for November. What will America choose?
After reading the book, I also can not help but think about the determination of Wilkerson to finish this book. In the last chapter, she describes the agony of this moment. Tens of thousands of people are dying from something for "what no one could see," and before that, her husband and mother passed away as well. In the last few years, she mourned their loss while writing about some of the saddest and tragic things humanity has done to each other. The resilience it took to keep on writing is inspiring. It is a lesson for all of us as we face uncertain and tragic times.
There are days when this virus frightens me more than others, and I have it better than most. There are some days where reading is the only escape, but I can not escape completely. The caste system is just like "what no one could see," but also the opposite.
It is the color of skin darker than mine that has determined so much. What if it was height? We already shame people who might have a larger weight, but if they are part of the dominant Caste, they can still do everything that the lighter ones can. Why were we Jews spared the worst denigrations of the caste system? I guess America just decided that a lighter skin tone prevailed. It was in the code of American caste.
Wilkinson starts her book-writing journey in Berlin where they have tried to come to terms with the Nazi Party's destruction. Wilkinson describes Germany as the model for how to come to terms with the horrible actions of their ancestors. Still, it is not a perfect analogy to the U.S. The country has a rising neo-nazi movement, which was not mentioned in the book. I believe that simply reinforces her argument. Caste is not easy to shed. Wilkerson makes the allusion to cancer in Caste, and the same can be said of Germany. If a country decides to kill millions of Jews, that hatred may disappear for one generation or two, but can it remain harmless for three? How long can cancer and anti-Semitism stay in remission? The last few generations of Germans do not live with Jews in their community. An entire community vanished.
There is some glimmer of hope in the last paragraph of the book but it almost seems like someone told her she had to leave the readers with at least one positive conclusion. I imagine the publisher or editor asking her about what should the readers leave with that makes them feel hopeful? But maybe the problem is that we always try to find the silver living rather than address the root cause. We want everything wrapped up in a bow, and to think that if we simply stop a few evil leaders, we will smoke out hatred and the caste system, but this book makes the case that in a caste system, one or two "leaders" who are "racist" being called out, will not solve this problem.
When she writes about her conversations with Taylor Branch, and her other "serendipitous moments" of meeting people who helped influence the book we realize her genuine star power and have to wrestle with the depressing fact that she still has to deal with the indignities of our caste system. She wrote one of the greatest books of the 21st Century, and her circle is Branch, Eric Holder (who she also thanks), and the former Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu, and still is not safe from a white person completely dressing her down. Like covid19, Nobody can escape our caste system.
In one example of how our Caste system forces the entire community to suffer, she writes about Satchel Paige. He was one of the greatest pitchers of the 20th Century but was not allowed to pitch in the Major Leagues because of Jim Crow. While he set records in the Negro Leagues, white fans missed out on the sport's legends because he was not white. At forty-two, he finally pitched in the MLB, and still dominated.
"Under the spell of caste, the majors, like society itself, were willing to forgo their own advancement and glory, and resulting profits, if these came at the hands of someone seen as subordinate."
For more on Paige, see Larry Tye's book.
As the NBA players wrestle with how to protest and strike and take a stand against the police's state-sponsored violence, it reminds me of Wilkerson's chapter on Paige. Our society will miss out on the entertainment and excellence on display in the bubble because we refuse to change.
Going to the internet
This is one of the funniest Shouts and Murmurs. Virtual school is necessary right now, but still a tragedy. Here is a dose of laughter to cure some of the pain.
It has been fifteen years since Hurricane Katrina highlighted some of the significant inequities in our country. If different decisions were made a hundred years earlier, we could have avoided so much of the pain and suffering in 2005 and beyond.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/23/opinion/hurricane-katrina-wasnt-natural-disaster/