Caste : the origins of our discontents

Wilkerson, Isabel, author.

First edition.

Book

New York : Random House, [2020]

©2020

xvii, 476 pages ; 25 cm

"Beyond race, class, or other factors, a powerful caste system influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, and stigma. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, and Wilkerson herself--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day"--Dust jacket flap.

Caste -- United States.

Social stratification -- United States.

Social classes -- United States.

Classism -- United States.

Ethnicity -- United States.

Power (Social sciences) -- United States.

United States -- Race relations.

United States -- Ethnic relations.

The man in the crowd -- Part one: Toxins in the permafrost and heat rising all around. The afterlife of pathogens ; The vitals of history ; An old house and an infrared light ; An American untouchable ; An invisible program -- Part two: The arbitrary construction of human divisions. A long-running play and emergence of caste in America ; "The container we have built for you" ; The measure of humanity ; Through the fog of Delhi to the parallels in India and America ; The Nazis and the acceleration of caste ; The Evil of Silence -- Part three: The eight pillars of caste. The foundations of caste: The Origins of Our Discontents ; Pillar number one: Divine will and the laws of nature ; Pillar number two: Heritability ; Pillar number three: Endogamy and the control of marriage and mating ; Pillar number four: Purity versus pollution ; Pillar number five: Occupational hierarchy: the Jatis and the Mudsill ; Pillar number six: Dehumanization and stigma ; Pillar number seven: Terror as enforcement, cruelty as a means of control ; Pillar number eight: Inherent superiority versus inherent inferiority -- Part four: The tentacles of caste. Brown eyes versus blue eyes ; Central miscasting ; Dominant group status threat and the precarity of the highest rung ; A scapegoat to bear the sins of the world ; The insecure alpha and the purpose of an underdog ; The intrusion of caste in everyday life ; The urgent necessity of a bottom rung ; Last place anxiety: packed in a flooding basement ; On the early front lines of caste ; Satchel Paige and the illogic of caste -- Part five: The consequences of caste. The Euphoria of Hate ; The inevitable narcissism of caste ; The German girl with the dark, wavy hair ; The Stockholm Syndrome and the survival of the subordinate caste ; Shock troops on the borders of hierarchy ; Cortisol, telomeres and the lethality of caste -- Part six: Backlash. A change in the script ; Turning point and the resurgence of caste ; The symbols of caste ; Democracy on the ballot ; The price we pay for a caste system -- Part seven: Awakening. Shedding the sacred thread ; The Radicalization of the Dominant Caste ; The heart is the last frontier -- Epilogue: A world without caste.

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