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    Summary of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
    Summary of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
    Summary of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
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    Summary of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

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    A high-quality summary of Isabel Wilkerson ́s book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, including chapter details and an analysis of the main themes of the original book.

    About the original book:
    Isabel Wilkerson paints a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America in this brilliant book, in which she explores how a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings, has shaped America today and throughout its history through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people.

    A powerful caste structure controls people's lives and conduct, as well as the nation's fate, independent of race, class, or other circumstances. Wilkerson investigates eight pillars that underpin caste systems across civilizations, including a divine will, bloodlines, shame, and more, by connecting the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany. She explains how the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day by using gripping stories of people like Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his baby son, Wilkerson herself, and many others. She argues why the brutal logic of caste needs that there be a bottom rung for those in the center to measure themselves by; she speaks on the unanticipated health costs of caste, such as depression and life expectancy, as well as the effects of this hierarchy on our society and politics. Finally, she suggests methods for America to move beyond the artificial and harmful differences that characterize human divisions and toward optimism in our shared humanity.

    Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is a beautifully written, original, and fascinating account of people and history, as well as a reexamination of what lies beneath the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherC.B. Publishers
    Release dateJul 9, 2022
    ISBN9780463971239

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      Summary of Caste - Condensed Books

      Copyright

      Condensed Books

      Summary of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

      © 2022, Condensed Books

      Self-published

      This is an unofficial summary of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, designed to enrich your reading experience.

      All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or retransmitted, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher; except for brief quotes used in connection with reviews written for inclusion in a magazine or newspaper.

      This ebook is licensed for your enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your copy."

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      This book is unofficial and unauthorized. It is not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by the aforementioned interests or any of their licensees.

      The information in this book has been provided for educational and entertainment purposes only.

      The information contained in this book has been compiled from sources deemed reliable and itis accurate to the best of the Author's knowledge; however, the Author can not guarantee its accuracy and validity and cannot be held liable for any errors or omissions. Upon using the information contained in this book, you agree to hold harmless the author from and against any damages, costs, and expenses, including any legal fees, potentially resulting from the application of any of the information provided by this guide. The disclaimer applies to any damages or injury caused by the use and application, whether directly or indirectly, of any advice or information presented, whether for breach of contract, tort, neglect, personal injury, criminal intent, or under any other cause of action. You agree to accept all risks of using the information presented inside this book. The fact that an individual or organization is referred to in this document as a citation or source of information does not imply that the author or publisher endorses the information that the individual or organization provided. This is an unofficial summary analytical review and has not been approved by the original author of the book.

      OVERVIEW

      Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson, is a historical and narrative nonfiction work set to be published in 2020 concerning the nature of inequality in the United States, India, and Nazi Germany. Wilkerson is a former journalist and writer who is best known for her work in the New York Times, for which she won a Pulitzer Prize. Her 2010 masterpiece, The Warmth of Other Suns, brought her even more attention. Wilkerson has also taught journalism at several schools, including Princeton and Emory University.

      To explain the nature and implications of inequality, caste explains the United States from the advent of the first enslaved individuals in 1619 to the current Covid-19 pandemic. Many people were upset and astonished by the results of the 2016 presidential election, but the outcome was truly the product of long-buried issues and Wilkerson advocates for a deep dive into the structures of American life in the first section of the book. She claims that comprehending America requires a knowledge of its caste system, which is a commitment to structures that value some lives more than others; in the United States, it is based on skin color.

      In Part 2, Wilkerson explains how Race was created as an inequitable structure in response to economic needs. Slave Africans were used as a labor force in the American colonies, and an intellectual system arose to justify their enslavement. Race is a created category, and Wilkerson believes caste to be more useful in certain ways because it is based on hierarchies rather than emotions, and everyone at the top of the hierarchy sustains the system. Wilkerson also points out that Nazi Germany, which we think of as the most extreme form of prejudice, also rejected elements of the Jim Crow South's racial ideology as being too harsh.

      Wilkerson describes her encounters with some of these principles, such as the divine origins of inequality, the inheritability of inferior status, control over sexual partnerships and children, fears of pollution by inferiors, and assumption of status based on employment, in the third section of the work. Violations of these tenets frequently result in heinous repercussions. Wilkerson has been turned down for jobs because White males believe a Black woman cannot be a journalist.

      Wilkerson observes in the work's fourth section that since the 1970s, White men have perceived themselves to be in a more insecure situation, and they have resorted to racism to explain their new circumstances, as well as a growing aversion to the Democratic Party. When Black people emerge in situations or areas where White people do not believe they belong, they are threatened with police violence. Wilkerson also talks about people whose careers have been affected by the caste system.

      Wilkerson expands on dominant caste behavior in Part 5, pointing out how white Americans characterize themselves in terms of their European lineage. When members of the subordinate caste suffer, such as after the 2015 killings at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, the caste system relies on empathy and forgiveness from the superior caste. She recounts her near-ults on flights by White men who were defending their caste standing at the price of her individuality. These humiliations have bodily consequences: it has been discovered that the stress of racism alters African Americans' cells and speeds up their aging.

      Wilkerson then moves on to the 2008 presidential election. Obama's victory is also a caste story: his history avoided any mention of slavery or segregation, and his accomplishments distinguished him as an exceptional individual. However, his presidency sparked a backlash among whites, culminating in the development of the Tea Party. 2016 is also explained by the caste system: Many white voters wanted to reaffirm the caste system's supremacy by voting for Trump.

      They kept their defensive posture going by defending Confederate monuments. German commemorative customs, on the other hand, do not honor past Third Reich leaders. Wilkerson also points out that the caste structure has severe economic implications, which the Covid-19 outbreak has highlighted, as race death differences are stark.

      Wilkerson considers Indians who have abandoned their dominant caste identity in the work's last section, as well as a White acquaintance who became enraged after receiving poor service at a restaurant because of Wilkerson's ethnicity. She utilizes these experiences to argue that humanity can be reclaimed outside of caste. In a time when American democracy appears insecure precisely because too many elites cling to the caste system, modern Germany gives promise of a state that has abandoned caste.

      Toxins in the Permafrost and Heat Rising All Around

      PREFACE

      THE MAN IN THE CROWD

      Wilkerson describes a famous photograph from the Third Reich period in German history, which spanned Adolph Hitler's reign of terror from 1933 to 1945. It depicts a group of shipyard workers in Hamburg who are all healing in unison (xv). The shot is well-known for the one individual who is not in it.

      The individual has been provisionally identified as August Landmesser, a former Nazi who later turned against the party. He did so because of his close relationship with a Jewish woman, which was prohibited at the time under German law.

      He understood that Jews were German citizens, human as anyone else, unlike others (xvi). Because of this, he was able to see more clearly than his countrymen.

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