Caste

September 15, 2022
Adapted for teens from the 2020 adult bestseller, this timely work urges readers to complicate conversations around American race and class divisions. "What does racist mean in an era when even extremists won't admit to it?" asks Wilkerson, who introduces readers to caste, "an artificial construction" not solely based on race or class but "a fixed and embedded ranking of human value." In America, she writes, there's a "shape-shifting, unspoken, race-based caste pyramid" persisting through generations. The parallels between caste and race are palpable throughout the book, though, Wilkerson writes, they "are neither synonymous nor mutually exclusive." Unlike race, which is a mutable social concept, and class, which can shift through luck and achievement, the author makes the case for caste as a permanent fixture which can be traced to the 1619 arrival of enslaved Africans in the Virginia Colony. Prior to defining caste rankings and outlining its eight pillars, Wilkerson draws comparisons between India and the United States, referencing the treatment of Adivasi and Native Americans, Dalits and African Americans. Additionally, the book provides provocative insights into America's influence on Nazi Germany, whose researchers carefully studied U.S. race laws. Vignettes and memoir intertwine, illuminating the book's arguments. With easy-to-digest storytelling and elaborate metaphors embedded in extensive research, Wilkerson challenges readers to resist validating any semblance of hierarchy and to refer to history as a pathway for eradicating its stronghold. Compelling and accessible for a younger generation energized to build a better world. (index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

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Starred review from June 29, 2020
In this powerful and extraordinarily timely social history, Pulitzer winner Wilkerson (The Warmth of Other Suns) investigates the origins, evolution, and inner workings of America’s “shape-shifting, unspoken” caste system. Tracking the inception of the country’s race-based “ranking of human value” to the arrival of the first slave ship in 1619, Wilkerson draws on the works of anthropologists, geneticists, and social economists to uncover the arbitrariness of racial divisions, and finds startling parallels to the caste systems of India and Nazi Germany. The Nazis, Wilkerson notes, studied America’s restrictive immigration and anti-miscegenation laws to develop their own racial purity edicts, and were impressed by the “American custom of lynching” and “knack for maintaining an air of robust innocence in the wake of mass death.” While India abolished formal laws that defined its caste systems in the 1940s, and America passed civil rights measures in the ’60s, their respective hierarchies live on, Wilkerson writes, in “hearts and habits, institutions and infrastructures.” Wilkerson cites studies showing that black Americans have the highest rates of stress-induced chronic diseases of all ethnic groups in the U.S., and that a third of African Americans hold antiblack biases against themselves. Incisive autobiographical anecdotes and captivating portraits of black pioneers including baseball pitcher Satchel Paige and husband-and-wife anthropologists Allison and Elizabeth Davis reveal the steep price U.S. society pays for limiting the potential of black Americans. This enthralling exposé deserves a wide and impassioned readership. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM Partners.

Starred review from December 1, 2022
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Pulitzer Prize winner Wilkerson makes her recent bestseller available to teens in this adapted edition. Delineating both the distinction between and the intersection of caste and race, the author focuses on three caste systems that have stood out in history: the officially vanquished caste system of Nazi Germany, the lingering caste system of India, and the race-based caste system of the U.S. After introducing this human hierarchy, she explains the "eight pillars," such as heritability, control of marriage, and cruelty as a means of control, that uphold the caste system. While the text skews scholarly toward suiting more advanced readers, Wilkerson's succinct explanations in short chapters keep the book from becoming too dense. Readers who progress through this background portion will appreciate how the author then relates the caste system to various facets of world history and everyday life in modern America. Here is where Wilkerson's lyrical style shines through as she narrates true, eye-opening, and even shocking vignettes of mostly lesser-known individuals who have encountered the negative effects of a caste system. The author intersperses her own experiences as a Black female journalist navigating the sometimes-unspoken yet enduring U.S. caste system. Through these stories, Wilkerson helps teens understand the country's systemic racism and consider how to deconstruct it. A thoughtful and thought-provoking analysis for readers ready to change the world.

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