Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents - Book Study

During our antiracism groups this past year, the question of what role classism and caste play in racial inequities has come up more than a few times, and some of you have asked that we delve into this further.

Please join Deacon Ari Wolfe in a close reading of Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” We will take a critical look at how class has operated in the United States, the impact it has had, and where we might go from here. It is a well-researched, brutally honest and insightful book.

A reviewer from O: The Oprah Magazine wrote, “. . . a trailblazing work on the
birth of inequality . . . Caste offers a forward-facing vision. Bursting with insight and love, this book may well help save us.”

We will meet for discussion via Zoom every other week on Wednesdays, April 21st through August 11th, from 2:30 - 4pm PST, reading approximately 25 pages each week. All are invited to join, even if you are not able to attend the Zoom discussions.

From Amazon reviewer Chris Schluep:
“(Caste) points to our entire social structure as an unrecognized caste system. Most people see America as racist, and Wilkerson agrees that it is indeed racist. She points out that we tend to refer to slavery as a “sad, dark chapter” in America when in fact it lasted for hundreds of years—but in order to maintain a social order and an “economy whose bottom gear was torture” (as Wilkerson quotes the historian Edward Baptist), it was necessary to give blacks the lowest possible status. Whites in turn got top status. In between came the middle castes of “Asians, Latinos, indigenous people, and immigrants of African descent” to fill out the originally bipolar hierarchy. Such a caste system allowed generations of whites to live under the same assumptions of inequality—these “distorted rules of engagement”—whether their ancestors were slave owners or abolitionists. And the unspoken caste system encouraged all to accept their roles..”

Suggested Donation $10. An email will be sent with confirmation and more details.