Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents in Orange County Library System (FL)

Apr 22, 2021 Melanie rated it it was amazing

I would give this book 100 stars if I could. And would that I have the celebrity to help convince more people to read this book. I want it to be required reading, with discussion groups, for ALL Americans, starting in high school. All adults should read it now. To be reminded how our country started. To read how Germany developed a caste system that lasted for about 12 years, but than was able to do away with it. Ours has existed for about 400 years, India’s for thousands. If only there were a w I would give this book 100 stars if I could. And would that I have the celebrity to help convince more people to read this book. I want it to be required reading, with discussion groups, for ALL Americans, starting in high school. All adults should read it now. To be reminded how our country started. To read how Germany developed a caste system that lasted for about 12 years, but than was able to do away with it. Ours has existed for about 400 years, India’s for thousands. If only there were a way to get people to truly believe that we should all be accepted for our own strengths and weaknesses, our talents, our dreams and aspirations, and our actions .... NOT the color of our skins. I also wish that this book had been published and that I had read it prior to March of 2020. I dated a Gujarati Indian man who’s family simply would not accept me. He went on to have an arranged marriage to a woman of the right genetic makeup - the right skin color. If I had read this book, and could somehow have convinced them to read this book, could we have come together and had meaningful conversations that would have allayed their concerns? Their concerns that they were brown and Hindu, and I am a white spiritual person, that we could have found some way to talk about their concerns in a healthy and respectful manner? That we are all people who have more similarities than differences. I have come to learn that traditional Indian parents are a breed all their own, but I had so much to offer their son. I am Ivy League educated, make a very good living, my children will have legacy admissions to 2 fantastic schools, I travel around the world with medical mission trips giving new smiles to babies with cleft lip and palate donating my money and my anesthesia expertise and my vacation hours to literally saving babies, I am great with kids, I speak 3 of the 4 most spoken languages in the world (English, Spanish, and Hindi), I loved their son with my whole whole heart and doted on him with all my free time and all I had to give... none of this mattered. Literally all they could see was my white skin. All they would acknowledge was that I was not Gujarati. What percentage of families in the US must we educate and guide away from this exclusionist kind of thinking until we can all live together in at least relative peace and acceptance. I would be lying to say that I am concerned that many Indians are immigrating to the US, traditional Indian families, people from the country in the world with the oldest most entrained caste system. I do not know what the future holds, but hopefully progress can continue to be made.
And I truly hope this book gets a wide readership. ...more

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Mar 12, 2021 Betty T rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. ****SPOILER ALERT***
First and foremost, read this book with an open mind and don’t let the reviews (including mine) color your perceptions or dissuade you from reading this book. This isn’t an easy book to read, as many have said, still, push through reading it though, the rewards are unfathomable. Isn’t this why we read in the first place? While the Warmth of Other Suns is my all-time favorite Isabel Wilkerson book, Caste doesn’t disappoint. Wilkerson uses historical research, individual exampl ****SPOILER ALERT***
First and foremost, read this book with an open mind and don’t let the reviews (including mine) color your perceptions or dissuade you from reading this book. This isn’t an easy book to read, as many have said, still, push through reading it though, the rewards are unfathomable. Isn’t this why we read in the first place? While the Warmth of Other Suns is my all-time favorite Isabel Wilkerson book, Caste doesn’t disappoint. Wilkerson uses historical research, individual examples and personal experiences to support her thesis. One accurate and important point she makes is race is a social construct. Another point she makes is “it isn’t the personal hatred of any one person but systematic abuse deeply ingrained in society and oblivious to the upper caste in any given society —and the upper caste will do anything to keep its caste (privilege) system intact.” She gives gruesome examples that are difficult to read throughout yet needful. Didn’t I mention pushing through for the reward of knowledge and self-awareness?

Wilkerson uses the first section and Part Two to give you her premise and spell out caste and how it has developed over time. The book spans the Obama Presidency, the Trump Presidency and the Coronavirus. This book illuminates what caste systems are around the world and every culture. Yes every culture has a caste system. She masterfully presents Caste in the Eight Pillars of Caste and the Tentacles of Caste. She talks about the US political landscape and one narcissist in particular: “A group whipped into narcissistic fervor is eager to have a leader with whom it can identify...The right kind of leader can inspire a symbiotic connection that supplants logic. The susceptible group sees itself in the narcissistic leader, sees his fortune and his fate as their own.” By the way, this applies to any group in any country that fits this scenario. There’s a common thread among all of the narcissistic personalities and ‘leaders’ contributing to caste spanning from 1619 to slave plantations to Emancipation to Nazi labor camps to civil war and civil rights. IMHO caste systems are the brainchild of narcissistic personalities. Excellent read. I will read a second time. ...more

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