Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

3 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Classism, Antisemitism, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Misogyny, Rape, War, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Religious bigotry, Confinement, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

Minor: Colonisation, Addiction, Abortion, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Drug use

Casteism

micaelamariem's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, War, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Cursing, Death of parent, Deportation, Pregnancy, Bullying, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Death, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Stalking, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Violence, Xenophobia, Suicide, and Torture

grubloved's review

it spends so much time trying to assure the reader that racism is real that it doesn't actually do any meaningful analysis?? it kind of reads like a baby's first racism primer. weird also that it kind of handwaves the entire existence of every racial group other than black and white; it makes sense once you understand it is specifically a book about antiblack racism in america, but even the book seems confused about what its purpose is, continually claiming to describe an entire system and then only fixating on one aspect -- feels a little shallow. 

also weird that india's caste system is a selling point but is honestly barely present in the book, and that nazi germany is consistently held up as another state creating an underclass (the goal wasn't an underclass of jews. it was no more jews. this is not very analogous to a caste system). 

the alpha wolf chapter was also absolutely atrocious and i think is a really good example of a lot of the problems i had with the text. it was really strange for the book to claim that racism's big downsides are largely that naturally superior people who happen to be in the wrong caste can't assume their rightful place as leaders, and that naturally inferior people who are in the upper caste should be allowed to be ruled by their betters ??? it continually seems to insist that hierarchy is not the problem, but that it is simply a wrong hierarchy and that we should adjust to follow a better natural order. just really really strange to read in a book about racism.

i really enjoyed the pillars of caste section but the rest of it just wasn't the indepth reading i was here for. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Confinement, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Classism, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Rape, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Child death, Colonisation, Torture, Racism, and Murder