Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that 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, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. publisher.
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Details
ISBN: 9781432885168
Physical Description:709 pages (large print) ; 24 cm
Edition:Large print edition.
Publisher:Waterville, Maine :Thorndike Press,2021.
Bibliography, etc. Note: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note: Part one: Toxins in the permafrost and heat rising all around -- Part two: The arbitrary construction of human divisions -- Part three: The eight pillars of caste -- Part four: The tentacles of caste -- Part five: The consequences of caste -- Part six: Backlash -- Part seven: Awakening.