Required Reading.....

I honestly don't remember who recommended Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson to me. Whoever it was....thank you.

This was not an easy read. It was an "uncomfortable" read. It was a thought provoking and disturbing read. It was a necessary read. This book should be required reading for every American. It should be required in schools (although I know there's not a chance of that.) I'm not sure what grade level would be able to digest and think and recognize and discuss this.....but this book is so well researched and so complete that it's impossible to argue with the premiss and the conclusions.

Much of American history is a source of pride.....but much is not. And our children and our friends do not learn about the parts that "hurt", and we need to. When I saw the title I immediately thought on the caste system in India....but here in America caste affects every aspect of our lives.

Deep into the narrative I quote the author: "The goal of this work has not been to resolve all of the problems of a millennia-old phenomenon, but to cast a light onto its history, its consequences, and its presence in our everyday lives and to express hopes for its resolution. A housing inspector does not make the repairs on the building he has examined. It is for the owners, meaning each of us, to correct the ruptures we have inherited.

The fact is that the bottom caste, thought it bears much of the burden of the hierarchy, did not create the caste system, and the bottom caste alone cannot fix it. The challenge has long been that many in the dominant caste, who are in a better position to fix caste inequity, have often been least likely to want to."

I encourage you to read this book....it will change the way you think about life in America today....and tomorrow.