Caste Themes

Throughout Caste, author Isabel Wilkerson argues that the United States has always structured its society around a polarized caste system. A caste system is a social hierarchy created on the basis of characteristics like race or religion, in which dominant castes control subordinate ones. While the word “caste” is most commonly associated with the caste system in India, the book suggests that the U.S. has its own caste system that divides citizens based on…

While the concept of a caste system (or social hierarchy) might be most closely linked with the Hindu caste system in India, caste systems exist all around the world. As early as 1916, American eugenicists pointed to the caste system in India as the inspiration for and parallel to the Jim Crow (or racial segregation) laws in the U.S.’s Southern states. And in 1934, when the leaders of the Nazi Party gathered in Berlin to…

All of global society, Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste suggests, pays a price for a caste system (a social hierarchy that ranks people based on fixed, arbitrary categories) that rewards few while punishing many. The book suggests that the United States in particular suffers because of its allegiance to a rigid caste system, resulting in an inaccurate understanding of their country’s history and unequal access to things like healthcare and education. By pointing out how societies…