Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

10 reviews

kelley016's review against another edition

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challenging informative sad medium-paced

4.25


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hannahwinston's review

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challenging informative reflective tense slow-paced

4.0

Whatever you think you know about the origins of racism/classism/caste, this book goes even further.

While I knew a lot about the American Caste, I did not know how much it influenced Nazis. There were several lines that blew my mind but this one, about selling souvenirs from lynchings during the Jim Crow Era, knocked me off my feet:

“This was singularly American. Even the Nazis did not stoop to selling souvenirs of Auschwitz, wrote time magazine many years later.”

The biggest takeaway/reminder:

“Evil asks little of the dominant caste other than to sit back and do nothing. All that it needs from bystanders is their silent complicity in the evil committed on their behalf.”

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elizas's review

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challenging dark informative medium-paced

5.0


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micaelamariem's review

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emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

 found this book to be very educational, motivational, and eye-opening. It was interesting, though brutal, to learn the full scale of the history of caste in america and how awful we can be as humans. I think everyone could benefit from reading this. However, though I agree with Wilkerson on everything including the politics of today, I can see how it might polarize people to where they’d miss the point she’s trying to make. I also think the cohesiveness of the narrative could have been better. Still, overall a great read of a dark history and startling present! 

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tarines316's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Wilkerson provides an in depth analysis of America’s caste system and the history that has lead us to where we are. She uses personal stories and specific examples to illustrate the elements of caste. 

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arthur_harris's review

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challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

This book pulls absolutely no punches. It lays out the facts of its subject matter with a kind of frank, unflinching look at the truth that is so constantly softened and blunted in history. Deeply, grimly informative on the true history of the Black experience in the United States. A harsh reality check for those - like me - who grew up with a whitewashed view of American history. While this book is a difficult read in many ways, that is part of what makes it such a necessary one. It forces the reader to examine the deeply ingrained racism baked into the foundation of America, and the subsequent role of the (non-Black) reader in that racist system. An absolutely vital piece of literature. 

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jess_westhafer's review

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I felt like I got everything out of this book I was going to in the pages I read. The ideas started to seem redundant, and I didn’t feel the need to keep going. 

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youreawizardjerry's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.5


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f18's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

3.0

Even going into this after reading reviews and therefore knowing it was more US-centric than international, I found it disappointing. The writing structure is multiple anecdotes per chapter followed by a sum-up of what Wilkerson was wanting to illustrate with those stories. It was not very intersectional and rarely mentioned groups outside of black and white when discussing the United States. While the anecdotes definitely have value it read more like a pop-social science book to me, which I suppose is the author's intention but not to my taste in nonfiction.

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tlilf's review

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