This is a profound and eye opening book that asserts America has been throughout its history and today -been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
It’s deeply researched and clearly written as she links the caste system of India and Nazi Germany.
Its sad and illuminating all the the same time as the history of America is re-examined.
She explores various pillars that support the caste system and the damage it exerts be it : life expectancy , fear and terror , disenfranchisement , stigma , incarceration - the list goes on.
She documents how the Nazis in the 1930’s studied Jim Crow era segregation and politics as they were planning the eradication of the Jews and the stigmatization of a race of people they deemed inferior.
It’s a stirring book - and as the author reminds us:
”We are responsible for our own ignorance or, with time and openhearted enlightenment, our own wisdom."
It is of enormous importance that in order to progress, we must confront and understand the legacies of that problematic past -and recognize the “baked in” prejudices and mechanisms that perpetuate the caste system.
Therefore now is the time not to gloss over an uncomfortable and problematic history - but instead to confront it and change it.
Wilkerson writes:
“The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality, it is about power — which groups have it and which do not.”
It’s compelling reading and highly recommended.
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