Charles Stuart Character Analysis

Charles Stuart was a white man living in Boston who, in 1989, violently murdered his pregnant wife. Then, he shot himself in the stomach and claimed that an armed Black assailant had attacked them both. While Stuart’s brother—an accomplice in the crime—eventually confessed to Stuart’s involvement, Stuart’s decision to scapegoat the Black community illustrated the profound effects of caste. As a white man, Stuart belonged to the U.S.’s dominant caste—and Wilkerson uses his story to illustrate that a member of the dominant caste will always be believed over a member of the subordinate one.