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Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontents By Isabel Wilkerson

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Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson argues that the United States, as well as other countries have a caste system that is based on race and history due to slavery and discrimination. Wilkerson explains that caste is a social order that is enforced through social and cultural norms and that it is different from class or race-based discrimination. Additionally, she argues that caste is a system of social classification that is based on ancestry and birth. In the United States, the caste system is based on race with white people at the top, and black people at the bottom. She believes that this caste system is implanted in American society and that it has roots in our history, slavery and Jim Crow segregation. This relates to systemic racism because of the social status and racial myths since white people had unacceptable thoughts about black people. In other words, there is the idea that the United States is like a house that needs extensive inspection and repair emphasizes that Americans should work together to maintain their civilization. If society aspires to eliminate caste, it must engage in an in-depth existential questioning. Wilkerson contends that caste …show more content…

I previously did not know that there was a caste system and institutions (schools, banks, work places, criminal justice system and housing policies). I initially thought that the caste system was just a system based on race, but there are many other factors that contribute to racism. The caste system is based on birth and defines a person's social status, occupation, and opportunities. To relate this to the Black Lives Matter movement, the police officer that killed George Floyd, probably had the idea that he was more superior if the police force supported him. The police force did not fire or punish him after he killed George Floyd (systemic racism) since he is

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Every individual is born with a specific culture and color. Respecting each and every person is society’s duty. Society fails in doing so by treating each individual based on their color. Society has two ways to see a person and that is black and white. Whites are given the higher position and well treatment whereas blacks are treated in an opposite way than whites.

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The major thesis in this book, are broken down into two components. The first is how we define racism, and the impact that definition has on how we see and understand racism. Dr. Beverly Tatum chooses to use the definition given by “David Wellman that defines racism as a system of advantages based on race” (1470). This definition of racism helps to establish Dr. Tatum’s theories of racial injustice and the advantages either willingly or unwillingly that white privilege plays in our society today. The second major thesis in this book is the significant role that a racial identity has in our society.

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In Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow she states that there is a new racial caste system—mass incarceration—in America. Alexander argues that the prior racial caste system, Jim Crow, has not ended—it’s merely been redesigned. Alexander’s main argument is that in this current era of colorblindness, it is not permissible to discriminate on the basis of race hence mass incarceration labels people of color as criminals and then uses all the practices that were “supposedly left behind”. Alexander uses the term racial caste because mass incarceration, like Jim Crow and slavery, were systems that denoted a stigmatized racial group and forced them into a permanent inferior position by law.

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The first chapter looks at how the racial caste system came to be in the United States as a way of controlling labor. The second chapter looks at how the system has slowly evolved throughout history and the impact that the civil rights movement has had in affecting that evolution. It also looks at how supreme court decisions in the past hundred years have changed the way officers have been allowed to act. The third chapter looks at the idea that the justice system has become a means for class control. In particularly in the form of the “War on Drugs” creating a disproportionate amount of people of color incarcerated for nonviolent offenses and how police departments are financially incentivized to prioritize their efforts towards drug offenses.

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Everyday someone is called out or hated against or put down because of their skin color. Caste also happens everyday, in the same way that racism does. When school boards oppose Critical Race Theory, it feels like they are not teaching a piece of American history. If kids learned that “... race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category… ” They might be able to move past some of the racism we see in school systems today.

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Although there may be times when you come across races and have a racist experience; it is not an ongoing thing all the time anymore. W.E.B DuBois is explaining clearly as day how racially profiled America used to be. For example, he states “It decrees that it shall not be possible in travel nor residence, work nor play, education nor instruction for a black man to exist without…acknowledgment…to the dirtiest white dog.” This goes to show how much control whites had over black people in America before today, specifically during 1919. DuBois is using this statement to express how blacks cannot have housing, cannot work, cannot travel, or even have an education without being seen as being beneath the white man.

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Throughout the world, many people are discriminated based on their social standings such as jobs, wealth, authority, and race; however, in India, there has been a strict social structure that has impacted the country for hundreds of years. This social structure is known as the caste system. Members of Indian society are divided into castes, also known as jati, which from the time they are born greatly influence and shape the rest of their future (India- Caste and Class). The origins of the caste system present in India are debated greatly among many historians.

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In 1965 Casey Hayden and Mary King, both SNCC staff members wrote “Sex and Caste: A Kind of Memo” about the way women were treated. They explained that there was a caste system that society forced women to fall into. This “caste” system was similar to the racial caste system, except the racial caste system was starting to get torn down though the Civil Rights Movement. Many people tried to refute the gender caste system explaining that women have the right to vote and get divorced, but in actuality voting rights could not help women. Their caste system was institutionalized by society and excluded women from positions of authority.

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Analysis Questions: “The Hindu Caste System” There are four differences between the caste system and other social class systems. There is the sanction of divine law and hierarchal organization. The caste is separated and movement to different ones are difficult. Heredity also plays a major role in the caste system.

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Systemic Racism in the United States Many individuals today have different point of views on how the United States of America became what it is today. For instance, point of views such as how society learned to function the way it does, the law and order in place, and ultimately, how circumstances have developed throughout history. Unfortunately, institutional/institutionalized racism, also known as systemic racism is also a concept that has settled and is grown to be quite predominant in the United States all through times past. Systemic racism continues to take place in settings such as banks, courts of law, government organizations, school systems, and the like.

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Hindu society was, and to some extent, still is largely constructed of a hierarchy known as the caste system. Which is essentially

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Society has the power to bring a community together or even divide a community. Social classes is are one of many reasons communities are brought together. In our communities now, many even form organizations to help out them needy and poor to help them advance and have a place of their own so they aren’t suffering and live a hard life. Another way that brings communities together is the racism. Racism is shown in The Power of One, in some parts of Things Fall Apart and now in our generation.

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A large number of scholar actually regard “Caste system”, from ancient India as a self help religion. The Hindu caste system was a clever invention of the later Vedic society, justified by a few law makers. This essay will discuss both the positive and negative aspects of the Caste system from ancient India as a self help system. Caste system made the ancient India society orderly and more positive. Also caste system made a big trouble between different level people and brought something unfair.

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Some might argue that India’s Caste system is closely related to However, Caste and social hierarchy were more different because Caste happens over different lifetimes, and social hierarchy can happen over one. In the caste system people could move their position in their current life, however they could have moved up or down depending on how they acted in their last life. In the Social hierarchy, men could move up or down depending on whom they married, however women could not move throughout the chain. “Women were generally seen as inferior to men, dominated by their bodies rather than their minds.” (McKay pg

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According to functionalist, the caste system exists because it is functional. One possible reason could be that the labor is cheap and the higher classed people can gain money easier in this sense. While it seems like an unjust system it has happened before, like through out older civilizations cities were born out of caste systems similar or crueler than the ones in India now. For example, the Roman Empire was built with war prisoners its army captured, and Egypt had its lesser classes and slaves work to build it grand pyramids. While the Dalits are not prisoners of war they are prisoners of the system that let people get abused.

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