Reviews with content warning for Racism - Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

141 reviews

srjennings's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

A fantastic, well written book. The author clearly presents her thesis, backs it up with historical and present day data, others' stories and her own personal experiences. She uses metaphors to illuminate how caste functions and makes it easy to understand.

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pran's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.75

It is difficult to rate this book as I do feel like it adds to the discourse and is very important in its own right as it's kind of pioneering. The inclusion of personal anecdotes and the stories of people Wilkerson spoke to was particularly powerful.

However, I think the development of the arguments fell a bit short for me. That being said, I think the book is so important in initiating the contemporary thought process about caste in America. I do not think it went far enough in defining caste in America as for me it felt synonymous with race whereas in reality it is a combination of race, socioeconomic group, gender, sexuality, level of conventional attractiveness, level of education. Therefore, I do not think that this book achieved what it set out to do as it failed to define caste in America as much more than racism, which it is much more than. However, I am rating it well because I very much enjoyed reading (and listening to) it and I learned a lot from the stories Wilkerson shared about the lived experiences of African-Americans.

I also took issue with the more science-y chapter as I felt the science had been misrepresented somewhat.

I also didn't feel like the actual depth of research Wilkerson did and the number of people she spoke to was necessarily reflected in the book as I think I was expecting the concept to develop further than it did.
I read it as I absolutely loved The Warmth of Other Suns and there was no way I was letting this go unread. But ultimately this fell short of my (albeit high) expectations.

For those listening on audio, the narrator is excellent!

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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emotional informative slow-paced

2.75

I’m unsure why this book has become so popular. The theory the author puts forth is somewhat incoherent and is held together by a bunch of anecdata. I’m glad I read it so that I can be aware of its presence in the zeitgeist, but I got very little of the actual content. The author contends her little with colonization in her book, which I feel is a huge absence. She seems like the kind of person who wants to “save the soul” of America, when I’m over here shouting #landback. At the end she gives an impassioned plea for everyone to just be exposed to the true nature of US history, that that would cause everyone to wake up and fight for justice. I really don’t think that’s the case.

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