The first thing I´ve noticed from the first until the last page of Caste by Isabel Wilkerson is the beauty of the writing. It is not common sense to associate the fine choice of words and refined paragraphs with academic writing. Rather the opposite, as the point of nonfiction is, among others, to prove various points of views and analyse specific topics. The search for beautiful words though is the last priority of a nonfiction writer as the choice and use of neutral, simple words and clear sentences may serve the purpose of exposing and explaining a certain reality.
However, in this case, the beautiful writing makes the topic more approachable and easier to understand. Caste is a well documented book which uses the author´s personal observations as well as surveys and other academic articles and books on the topic, with a particular focus on India, Germany and the US.
Caste is not necessarily a comparative book but it uses comparison in order to outline the specificities of the American class and caste system. Although the references to the Indian - Hindu-oriented - caste system may provide useful information about how the caste system really works, particularly in issues regarding the main caste pillars, the frequent mention of Nazi Germany and the ostracization of its Jewish population, as compared to the situation of African-American, during and beyong the slavery is fortuitous. For a very simple reason: Nazi Germany wanted to make the Jews dissapear through systematic killing. The discrimination, the cruelty and terror, the purity laws all were aimed to lead, sooner or later, to the disappearance of Jews. An aim which was not endeavoured by the American political system.
´Just as DNA is the code of instructions for all development, caste is the operating system for economic, political and social interaction in the United States, from the time of its gestation´. The American caste system started in 1619, after the arrival of the first Africans to Virginia colony. One of the first decisions of the representatives of the colony was to decide who could be enslaved for life and who could not. Together with race, the caste system is the very basis of the American society: ´Caste is the bones, race is the skin´. Through caste power, resources, respect, authority and ´assumption of competence´ are reproduced on a daily basis. It creates social and political habits and the set the ground of further social and political stability. It combines elements pertaining to evolution and biological laws, but also to theology - the divine Will who designed the society and its members in certain ways - and professional choices. Its heritability enforces a system over and over again, particularly through a legal system which is race-based oriented.
Members of the lower caste - in this case the African-Americans - may end up behaving as they are expecting to: assuming the role assigned, avoiding conflict and delaying the moment when the system may be challenged. Actually, by keeping the members of this caste at a non-educated, uninformed, weak level. They are powerless because they were meant to be this way and even ended up assuming this status themselves.
Although I agree that the election of an African-American president was ´the greatest departure from the script of the American caste system´, only the election in itself did not change, Isabel Wilkerson fails to explain in detail the lack of a clear plan to empower the African-American community. The election of Trump was probably the counter-reaction of the caste system, but things would have been considerably smoothly with a different set of policies aimed to challenge the caste system. After all, Obama had eight full years to do it.
Caste is a fundamental book for understanding the historical and social basis of the caste system in America and its impact of other (non-white) communities, particularly the African-Americans.
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