Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

 

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson is a fascinating book that takes on the issue of race or ethnicity in America and molds it into the paradigm of caste.  According to Wilkerson, most American ills can be traced to our devotion to caste, and the constantly changing nature of caste: the ruling white male elite in the United States has proven that they maintain and mold caste, and their superiority within it, since the European colonization of North America.

I am usually skeptical of meta-theories and one-answer-to-all problem scenarios, but it is hard to find fault with Wilkerson’s historical reasoning.  It makes more sense than racial theories of subjugation, in most cases.