Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents," dives deep into America's social hierarchy. She explores the distinction between caste and race, drawing unsettling parallels between American racism and Nazi Germany's policies. The conversation emphasizes the importance of radical empathy in addressing systemic oppression and invites listeners to reflect on their own societal roles. Wilkerson's insights urge a collective responsibility for change, highlighting historical contexts and personal narratives.
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Race as a Social Construct
Race, as we know it, is a fiction, a social construct, not a biological reality.
Skin color is a fact, but race is an artificial hierarchy based on perceived value.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Bharara's Caste
Preet Bharara shares how his father told him their caste was Kshatriya, the warriors.
Wilkerson notes that most Indians who could afford to leave India were likely upper caste.
question_answer ANECDOTE
The Scholar and Caste
Preet Bharara recalls a scholar at a conference who identified as Kshatriya but wasn't physically imposing.
This exemplifies how caste persists even when its original context is removed.
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In 'The Warmth of Other Suns', Isabel Wilkerson provides a detailed historical account of the Great Migration, a movement of approximately six million African Americans from the Southern United States to the Midwest, Northeast, and West between 1915 and 1970. The book follows the lives of three primary subjects: Ida Mae Gladney, George Starling, and Robert Foster, illustrating the broader historical context of the migration. Wilkerson examines the social, economic, and political factors that drove this migration, including economic opportunities in Northern industrial cities, escape from Jim Crow laws and racial violence in the South, and the impact of World War I and II on labor demands. The book is notable for its blend of historical analysis and narrative storytelling, making complex historical events accessible through the personal and societal perspectives of those who lived through the Great Migration.
Caste
The Origins of Our Discontents
Antonio Francisco Rodríguez Esteban
Isabel Wilkerson
In this book, Isabel Wilkerson argues that racism in the United States is part of a broader caste system—a society-wide system of social stratification characterized by hierarchy, inclusion, and exclusion. She defines eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, heredity, and dehumanization. Wilkerson uses historical documentation, insightful analogies, and powerful anecdotes to illustrate how this caste system permeates American society, affecting people's lives and behavior. The book also explores the consequences of caste and the possibility of a world without it, emphasizing the need for collective effort to dismantle such systems.
Isabel Wilkerson is a journalist and author who in 1994 became the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in Journalism. Preet spoke with Wilkerson in August 2020 about her bestselling book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Wilkerson discussed the difference between caste and race, the ways that Nazi Germany drew inspiration from American racism, and the need for radical empathy as we deal with our own enduring caste system.
*This episode initially aired in full on August 13th, 2020.
For show notes and a transcript of the episode, head to: https://cafe.com/stay-tuned/revisiting-americas-caste-system-with-isabel-wilkerson/
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