Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

75 reviews

jenniferbbookdragon's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

 America's racism has established a caste system, and this examination of the similarities between the US, India, and Nazi Germany is powerful and compelling. Using this framework to address history as well as current societal and political issues makes for book that will make the reader reconsider what they think they know about why individuals and groups act the way they do around race.
Well researched without being dry, and including the author's experience as an African-American woman, it isn't a quick read due to the need to process the material. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, War, Antisemitism, and Classism

kirstenf's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Slavery, Torture, Genocide, Hate crime, Murder, Racism, and Antisemitism

horizonous's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Racism, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Violence, Antisemitism, and Slavery

Moderate: Suicide, Child abuse, Gun violence, and Police brutality

Minor: Genocide, Rape, and Medical content

atamano's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Torture, Classism, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Hate crime, Genocide, Slavery, Physical abuse, Violence, and Racism

sarahmcg's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

It’s difficult for me to rate/review non-fiction. However - I’ll do my best because I need  people to read this book!

This books is incredibly well-researched from start to finish. Not only does it include facts and figures, but moving personal stories from the author and those she interviewed that I will carry with me for a long time. It was a new perspective to see the comparisons drawn between the US caste system (based on race and white supremacy), the caste system during Nazi Germany, and the caste system in India. 

“Empathy is no substitute for the experience itself. We don't get to tell a person with a broken leg or a bullet wound that they are not in pain. And people who have hit the caste lottery are not in a position to tell a person who has suffered under the tyranny of caste what is offensive or hurtful or demeaning to those at the bottom. The price of privilege is the moral duty to act when one sees another person treated unfairly. And the least that a person in the dominant caste can do is not make the pain any worse.”

Several times throughout the book as the author moved through different time periods, I found myself wondering, “would I have been on the right side of history?” Because most of the time, white people have not been. There are many lessons/reminders to gain from this book, but a few would be: to continue to disrupt the current system in place, use your privilege to speak out, and listen to those marginalized communities who are hurting, especially when it’s uncomfortable. 

“Caste is insidious and therefore powerful because it is not hatred, it is not necessarily personal. It is the worn grooves of comforting routines and unthinking expectations, patterns of a social order that have been in place for so long that it looks like the natural order of things.”

If you have read this, I’d love to discuss! I think this would be a great book club pick. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Slavery, Hate crime, and Racism

Minor: Mass/school shootings, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual violence, and Racial slurs

sydapel's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

While I don't know that I completely agree with the fundamental hypothesis of this book (for may reasons, some of which I can articulate and some I can't), Wilkerson's ability to combine storytelling and and commentary on systematic racism in this country is done incredibly well. I do wish more time was spent on detailing the complexities of the Indian caste system, but that's a personal thing I don't think it detracts from the power this book has. (read as Part of SFCM's anti racism book club)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Antisemitism, Hate crime, Genocide, Racism, War, Xenophobia, Violence, Slavery, Sexism, Racial slurs, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, and Terminal illness

ebrown0789's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

This book was eye-opening. My only complaint is that I felt there were way too many analogies towards the beginning.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

Moderate: Violence, Gore, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Hate crime, Body horror, Child abuse, Genocide, and Physical abuse

Minor: Police brutality

xoxobunny's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, and Hate crime

nicole_p's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Bullying, Confinement, Genocide, Hate crime, Murder, Racism, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

f18's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, Murder, Sexual harassment, Hate crime, Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Slavery

Moderate: Suicide, War, and Classism

Minor: Mass/school shootings, Rape, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation