Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

60 reviews

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

Moderate: Suicide, War, and Classism

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

tlilf's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

buttermellow's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Antisemitism, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Grief, and Medical trauma

Minor: Gun violence and Police brutality

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Compelling and thought-provoking, Caste outlines the similarities between the traditional caste system in India and previously unidentified caste systems in Nazi Germany and America. This book highlights the parallels between the human hierarchies that each of these countries created and perpetuated. It discusses how the caste system created through the slave trade in the 1600’s is still being carried out today, in quieter but still nefarious ways. This book was difficult to put down. I had never considered racism through the lens of castes before but Wilkerson makes a great argument for why caste is the one stronghold in our country that must be broken in order for true healing and equality to happen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism

carmenvillaman's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Antisemitism, and Cultural appropriation

khum's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Police brutality, and Medical trauma

sadiereadthat's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, and Colonisation

fromjuliereads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

This was definitely a dense read but so important. It had some really interesting insight and comparisons between the caste systems of India, Nazi Germany, and the United States. 
There were anecdotes from the author's own experiences which lended to proving the points outlined. And some of the information provided was interesting, important, difficult, brought forth a lot of thoughts. I especially found it interesting when Wilkerson discussed the Black anthropologists who went to the South, as this was not something I had heard about previously. And I liked having some of the references to things I had studied about or seen in Germany. 

The one thing I will say is that sometimes the switches between the three caste systems felt jarring, as it flipped from one to another in a single paragraph or page. I think it could have been laid out more cleanly where it didn't feel like a tangent.
But all in all, definitely a book that should be read widely.

(I'm not adding a rating for non fiction because I never know how to rate them properly.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, and Antisemitism

Minor: Child death, Genocide, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

Lynchings are discussed, treatments of Dalits in India

beholderess's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Child death, Slavery, Police brutality, and Murder

aqtbenz's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Murder