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Caste
Caste: General Thoughts
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Sep 08, 2021 01:30PM
Please bring your thoughts, feedback, etc. on the book here!
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Hello again all!
Next Monday we will discuss Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. If you have any comments, feedback, insights, etc. that you would like to share or discuss about the book, please feel free to post it here for the discussion!
Best,
Cassie
Next Monday we will discuss Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. If you have any comments, feedback, insights, etc. that you would like to share or discuss about the book, please feel free to post it here for the discussion!
Best,
Cassie
Good Tuesday morning all.
Apologies for not posting yesterday, I was out expectedly to deal with a personal matter.
I don't see any topics or questions posted, so I will just add my parting thoughts and questions.
My thoughts:
In the book, Wilkerson provides evidence for her claim that America, like India, actually operates under a caste system.
This idea wasn't something I had considered before reading this book.
Initially, I was quite skeptical because I was not able to see the similarities between the two nations. But by the end of the book, I understood that "caste system" is the more appropriate term for how American society has and continues to function.
It was particularly uncomfortable and unsettling (physically and emotionally) to read how the Third Reich looked to how Black Americans were treated and the policies and laws of the United States to develop its own approach to making marginalized German communities - specifically Jewish Germans - believe they were inferior and making dominant caste Germans believe they were superior.
Did anyone else have a physical or emotional reaction to that part of the book?
I had never heard previously - in school, college or otherwise - about how members of the Third Reich actually came to America, specifically the south, to do research and develop their own ideas and policies based off American models.
It was awful to learn that a government responsible for the murder of millions of people took some of its ideas from its enemy and a nation that has presented itself as a pillar of western democracy since its very inception.
I think this book is part of a larger discussion about how America perceives itself and it's actual history and current mode of operation. The book hints that there is a disconnect between these concepts that has not been reconciled.
For me, this book reinforced a lot of the historical and modern disconnect that was discussed in a book we read earlier - White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity.
Would you say their is a disconnect in how America is perceived and its historical and modern policies?
What conclusions did you reach after finishing this book?
Thank you for reading along.
- Cassie
Apologies for not posting yesterday, I was out expectedly to deal with a personal matter.
I don't see any topics or questions posted, so I will just add my parting thoughts and questions.
My thoughts:
In the book, Wilkerson provides evidence for her claim that America, like India, actually operates under a caste system.
This idea wasn't something I had considered before reading this book.
Initially, I was quite skeptical because I was not able to see the similarities between the two nations. But by the end of the book, I understood that "caste system" is the more appropriate term for how American society has and continues to function.
It was particularly uncomfortable and unsettling (physically and emotionally) to read how the Third Reich looked to how Black Americans were treated and the policies and laws of the United States to develop its own approach to making marginalized German communities - specifically Jewish Germans - believe they were inferior and making dominant caste Germans believe they were superior.
Did anyone else have a physical or emotional reaction to that part of the book?
I had never heard previously - in school, college or otherwise - about how members of the Third Reich actually came to America, specifically the south, to do research and develop their own ideas and policies based off American models.
It was awful to learn that a government responsible for the murder of millions of people took some of its ideas from its enemy and a nation that has presented itself as a pillar of western democracy since its very inception.
I think this book is part of a larger discussion about how America perceives itself and it's actual history and current mode of operation. The book hints that there is a disconnect between these concepts that has not been reconciled.
For me, this book reinforced a lot of the historical and modern disconnect that was discussed in a book we read earlier - White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity.
Would you say their is a disconnect in how America is perceived and its historical and modern policies?
What conclusions did you reach after finishing this book?
Thank you for reading along.
- Cassie
